Huntress
by keiranhalcyon2010
Summary: What is beyond the veil of this world? One young woman discovers that death is but the beginning of her journey. Her struggle to find meaning and purpose in an unexpected afterlife will shake the very foundations of Soul Society.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is reworked version of the my first published story on . It's now a story in the Bleach Anime-verse - which I've always been a fan of along with DBZ. It is roughly 200 odd years before Bleach 1, cant be more specific due to the messy unspecified nature of the Bleach timeline. Knowledge of Bleach will help but isn't necessary. Soul Society is also reworked a bit to reflect a more multi-national population base, but still dominated by Asian influences (this will be explained in-story). I don't own Bleach and this is written for fun not profit, blah blah._

Chapter 1

The sun shone down weakly on a rugged mountainous region of land, its rays filtered by low lying grey clouds that occasionally even obscured a mountain as it reached down and hugged the earth. Colors of every type imaginable reached the eye, the soft green of lichen, grass and small trees, the rugged damp brown of rock, the occasional blue as the wind softly pushed the white clouds and allowed a glimpse to seemingly infinite blue of sky beyond. Yet, for all the ruggedness of the terrain, interspersed between the mountains were wide sweeping valleys, and draped like haphazardly fallen blue strings over the mountains were small rivers and tiny waterfalls which drained into the valleys. In the valleys through the day shadows of the looming mountains would be cast like a giant finger before the sun. Every early morning the twittering of birds would resonate through the region as they scurried and swooped about the land to find their breakfasts.

In one such valley, if you looked closely enough, you would soon begin to hear a natural sound, but in essence was an unnatural one. The _clip clop_ of a horse is natural, the sound of its hooves on the earth. However the two horses trotting slowly down a beaten path into the valley, could not claim to be purely of nature; affixed to the undersoles of their hooves were steel shoes, hard leather crafted saddles adorned their backs, and reigns were mounted over their equine heads. Both horses were palominos with their trimmed manes rippling in the wind and the motion of their bodies as they moved slowly forward. And sitting atop each horse were two rather tall teenagers.

Leading slightly and clearly the elder was a sixteen year old girl, she was slender in figure and shape, but tall; reaching almost five feet nine inches, her loose long black hair that fell into the small of her back rippled in the wind and her keen sapphire blue eyes gazed intently, scanning her surroundings. Her face had a pleasant appearance to look at, soft contours melded together, and it was clear that she was of Northern European descent. Her skin bore no makeup but she managed to look elegant anyway, with her fair skin pleasantly brown in the sun; it spoke of many hours swimming or sun tanning. She wore blue jeans that hugged her figure and rugged mountain boots adorned her feet, whilst a thick long sleeved red checkered shirt provided a bit of warmth from the cool to temperate climate.

Following her was a boy; he was thirteen, though he was about a head shorter than her. He had the same black hair and facial features. Clearly a younger brother and he was clad in similar attire but with a blue checkered shirt and a brimmed cowboy style hat. Slung across both teenagers backs were scoped 30.06 hunting rifles.

The girl brought her mount to a halt, her brother following and from a satchel on her saddle brought out a pair of binoculars and put them to her eyes, scanning the valley below.

"See anything sis?"

"Ja," she responded positively staring through the lenses. "But it's not an antelope, it's just a small hare."

"Damn," said the younger brother, frowning in frustration. "We've been traveling for almost half a day and not a sign of any worthy prey."

"Patience," she said in slightly admonishing tone. "The wind has only been in our favor since we've entered this valley. Hunting is not like one of your computer games, it's an art. And besides, you're in the Roland Warding section of the game farm, the antelope here are big, old and experienced. And our Uncle has let too many rich dentists in here to hunt in recent times." Roland Warding was a standard of quality for all game animals. If a male antelope, for instance had horns longer than a certain length…it was called a Roland Warding.

"But why?" he asked plaintively. "It's making it harder for me get my first antelope."

"Because our Uncle is a cunning _skobbejak_ (scoundrel)," she said with a fond grin. "By making the antelope harder to kill, he's getting more return in his investment. The rich folks still want to bag that elusive kill and trophy but end up coming out empty handed, and yet, Uncle still gets the money for their stay. Only someone with skill and experience can bag a Roland Warding trophy now."

"Do you think we'll be able to do it?" he asked eagerly.

"Yes, Klaus," she rolled her eyes, "in case you didn't remember, while you were out becoming a brainiac on a computer I was always outdoors and spent every holiday I've ever had out here."

"Of course, I remember," said Klaus in a disgruntled fashion.

"So, anyway, let's continue into the valley, we'll keep hunting for another hour, and then we have to start on the journey back," she advised, "and no further talking. The antelope may no longer be able to smell us, but they'll sure to hear us talking and scurry away before we can spot them."

"Yes, Melly," said Klaus with a teasing grin.

"It's Melanie," she replied angrily. "Stop butchering my name."

"Sorry, sis," he said, hardly looking it.

"Keep bothering me," she said warningly shaking a finger at her brother, "and I turn us around now."

Her brother shrugged, knowing she wouldn't do it. As their Uncle had instructed her to get Klaus his first antelope kill and be done with it, the boy had been irritating their parents and Uncle about it constantly for the past six months, ever since he had got it into his head that he wanted to at least do something as 'manly' as his cool big sister did.

Melanie would always head to their Uncle's game farm during school holidays, and it was here where she learned the 'old ways of the world' as their Uncle always put it. She had learned to ride horses, shoot a rifle, and track game, live off the land, in short, all the skills that a Ranger possessed. And when she was back in the city, when school was back in session, she had a spot on the school athletic team as a High jumper, but she did not stand out in the sport, despite her obvious athleticism. Her true talent, to the surprise of most of the family, was in martial arts. She had seen an exhibition in her freshman year done at their High School by a visiting Ninjitsu sensei, who was promoting his art and his newly opened dojo, just a few blocks away from the High School.

When Klaus had first heard of this he could only snort in disbelief and laughter. Ninjitsu in most Western minds was synonymous with the utterly ridiculous cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and he had teased his sister mercilessly about it. Until a few months later she had issued him a challenge to come and visit the dojo and see her train. What he had seen that night, had made him shut his trap faster than he could say the word 'Ninja'. He had seen how his sister could toss a man almost twice her weight as effortlessly as she was taking a morning stroll. Now, granted, it was only in a training situation, and her fellow student (the man she flung effortlessly) had allowed it, but the fact remained that she could do such a thing, if so inclined.

All this had finally let him come to one conclusion…that his sister despised acting like a typical girl her age…and when he had finally joined her this year in the same High School he saw that most of her friends were boys, and only here and there she had a female friend, he had it finally confirmed in his mind.

Still, he took comfort in the fact that, while his big sister was all these things, she hardly gave a damn for the Internet and computers, bar its obvious benefits as a help in her schoolwork. She couldn't sit in front of the computer and make it sing and dance for her like he could. Klaus was already beginning to think he his future lay in a job like IT security consulting or something similar.

But he still wanted to at least get closer to his sister in the 'manly' department, so he decided to forsake his beloved laptop and joined his sister during the brief two week October holidays to the game farm. Where he got a basic course how to shoot the rifle slung to his back and ride a horse; he was rather adept with the rifle, (only when shooting from a prone position) and his horsemanship was limited to keeping the horse at a slow trot (he just couldn't get the hang of how to stay in the seat while the horse was galloping).

"All right," came Melanie's voice, breaking through his thoughts, "that's it, time to go back."

He looked at her in surprise, had an hour passed already? She was staring at the sun's position overhead.

Klaus grumbled under his breath as he guided his horse to turn around. It was slow going, as for a while the horse just kept trotting forward, but eventually turned left in a wide turning circle. Melanie on the other hand had somehow guided her horse to turn on the spot and had to wait a bit for him to catch up.

"Don't worry, little bro," she said smiling brightly at him. "There's always tomorrow. A hunt like this is not a quick thing…sometimes you're lucky…sometimes you're not."

"Have you ever failed to hunt anything?" asked Klaus a bit morosely. It was the third day and the third attempt to hunt a Roland Warding antelope.

"Of course," said Melanie, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There was that time three years ago during the June holidays, an entire month and fifteen hunting trips like this one, and the specific type of antelope I wanted had totally eluded me."

"Why so picky?" asked Klaus confused. "Why not just hunt anything that came along your way, if the pickings were that dry?"

"I don't hunt for the sake of killing, nor do I hunt for pride or ego," said Melanie sternly, "in my six years of coming here every holiday, I've only killed three antelope, you've seen their trophies mounted in father's study. I hunt for the journey, and for being outdoors in this fresh unpolluted air, and also because it's fun stalking the game here."

"Oh, so it's a test of skill for you?" said Klaus in realization. Melanie nodded. It took slightly longer to get out of the valley, as they were going uphill and after an hour and a half both siblings crested the valley and guided their mounts on a due northern direction around the mountain. It took two hours for Klaus to realize their route was different than the one they had used to reach the Roland Warding section of the farm. Here was another of Klaus gifts, near perfect Eidetic memory, once he has seen a thing, he always remembered it, and his memory was telling him that their to and from routes did not match.

"Where are we going sis?"

"Oh, we're taking a slight detour to a very nice waterfall," she said, "the horses could use a drink and we could sure use some sustenance as well."

And just as she mentioned it, Klaus's stomach gave an angry growl.

"I've awakened the monster," she said dramatically. Klaus in an amazing display of maturity stuck his tongue out to her. They had both had an early breakfast, and frankly Klaus was surprised that he had gone so long without a meal, as it was well past midday.

Soon enough, they could hear the frothing and hissing of falling water and after guiding their horses around a sheer wall of rock they trotted down and Klaus could only gape at the sight before him. From high above a thick stream of water fell of the edge and into a pool roughly ten meters in width. The air was very humid here and he could feel the cold spray drifting onto his skin. The sun caused a refractive rainbow of color as he looked at the spray of the waterfall.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Melanie with a smile. Klaus could only nod. "I had the exact same reaction when Uncle showed me this place for the first time, it's what made me choose to learn from him and come back every holiday."

Klaus felt quite touched that she would show him such a place, which held such importance for her. Despite the fact that they were siblings, there had been a kind of estrangement between them as she had headed off to High School four years ago. They only saw each other during evenings and since she took martial arts in the evenings, even less time were available to them. It had been a rather interesting mystery to figure out who his sister had become, now that he was also in High School.

They dismounted after coming to a stop at the edge of the natural pool. Klaus had to suddenly use his horse for support as his legs buckled under his weight for a moment, and he felt rather stiff. Melanie winced in sympathy.

"You're going to feel today's riding rather badly," she said, gathering her horse's reigns to let it dangle forward.

"Again?" he said indignantly.

"It takes a while for your body to become used to the pounding," she shrugged. "I suggest you do those stretching exercises I showed you again."

Melanie walked over to Klaus's mount and helped him with the reigns of his horse. She un-slung her rifle from her back and after doing the safety procedure of opening the bolt and checking the chamber to make sure it was empty and the bullets in the small magazine still in place, she shoved the rifle into the special leather holster on her horse's saddle and turned to watch her brother do the same safety procedure, afterwards, immediately doing the stretching exercises.

She pulled and unstrapped her rolled up sleeping bag from behind the saddle of the horse and rolled it open on as dry ground she could find, and after releasing her horse from the weight of her saddlebags, dropped them on the splayed out bag. Opening the flap she pulled out two plastic lunch boxes filled with sandwiches and some fruit, and placed them on the bag, the water canteen also joining them.

Seeing this of course, caused Klaus to lose all enthusiasm for his stretching exercises and he was soon seated on the sleeping bag and digging in to his lunch box. Melanie, though, ate with more restraint but also wolfed down the entire contents of the box and drank a generous portion of the canteen.

Melanie closed her box, putting it back into the saddlebags and stood stretching the kinks out of her back and groaning. "You want to try the pool?" she asked her brother.

"Ummmm…no, thanks," he said, gulping. He knew they had not packed any sort of swimming trunks, and that could only mean that…

Melanie stood and with a slight hesitation (thinking about her brother's discomfort) pulled off her all terrain boots and socks and started to undress, soon enough, all her clothes lay at her feet and without a care in the world walked forward into the waterfall pool and began to wade and drift in it. Letting the water wipe the grime and sweat from her body and even once let herself be briefly bombarded by the residual fall of the water from high above, it was too powerful to stand under directly.

Klaus allowed himself a brief stare at his sister's nude form, and had to admit from a purely clinical, objective point of view that she was rather beautiful, certainly not fashion runway material. Her skin was evenly tanned all over and though she did not have the breasts his buddies are always salivating after, they were there…a B-cup, he judged. Her hips and waist were well on their way to rounding into full womanhood, her legs were long, toned and athletic and she kept herself smooth between her legs.

Klaus averted his eyes from that point, as he had felt his objectivity begin to slip and he lay back on the sleeping bag and stared up into the sky.

Melanie stared at the position of the sun and decided that it was time to go; they had to get back to the farm compound before sundown and that left only three hours to make the journey. She judged they would probably be back just as the twilight of the setting sun hit.

Rising out of the pool and shaking off as much water as she could, she headed over to the saddlebags.

"Come, Klaus, we've gotta get back before sundown, or Uncle will make my life a living hell," she said. Klaus nodded and began to roll up the sleeping back which he had been lying on. Melanie pulled out a small towel from the saddle bag and dried herself as best as possible, which wasn't much.

_Oh, well, guess I'd just have to dry naturally,_ she inwardly smirked.

She stuffed her clothes into the saddlebag, bar the socks and boots, and quickly put those on. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Klaus, initially his eyes widened in shock but then he got a contemplative expression on his face.

Dressed only in socks and boots, Melanie hoisted her saddlebags back on her horse and after gathering the reigns, mounted the horse in one fluent move. She could see Klaus's hands shaking a bit and he coughed. She felt a bit sorry that she was making him uncomfortable, as he mounted his own horse and followed in her wake for a moment, before she saw him encourage his horse to trot alongside hers.

Soon the hissing of the waterfall was behind them and fading into the distance, as they were soon skirting a nice wide mountain pass.

"You do this regularly, don't you?" said Klaus, trying hard to keep the accusation out of his voice, gesturing to her nudity.

"Yes," she nodded, "as you can no doubt see, I have no tan lines."

"You're a naturist," he stated. She sighed in response to the title.

"I suppose, but in my case, not entirely accurate," she said in response.

"How so?"

"I believe that in an appropriate setting," she gestured around them, "and in the right climate, to wear clothes is not necessary. But our ancestors began to wear clothing for a reason…the cold. Clothes serve a useful purpose, and in that I agree, in our current civilization; clothing often reflects status or power, that I do agree with to a marginal extent, however a naturist believes otherwise."

"Does Mom and Dad know, and Uncle?" he asked with a frown.

"Of course," said Melanie, she considered herself lucky, for when God was handing out families, that she had been blessed the most open-minded and considering parents on the planet, they were strict but fair, and in her opinion she hoped she could raise her own children in the future in the same way.

"How did they take it?" he asked curiously, staring fixedly ahead.

"Surprised, at first, obviously," she said dryly, "then asked me to explain why I wanted to walk around naked."

"What did you say?"

"God created us in his image, if he wanted us to hide our true appearance from each other, we would have been born with clothes or some sort of natural coverings for our unique attributes," she responded with a smile and a twinkle in her blue eyes. "Why should we feel shame over His creation? We don't feel shame over the shape of the trees, or the color of the sky etc, so why for our bodies?"

"Makes sense I suppose," conceded Klaus.

"And I don't want you to be afraid of looking at me in this state," she said sternly.

"What?" he squeaked.

"You heard me," she said, "look at me Klaus," she ordered, her voice brooking no argument. Reluctantly, he turned his head to look at her. "I'm not ashamed and you fear you're going to have a…reaction to my nakedness. It will happen, its natural, even though I'm your sister, it's simply your natural hormones speaking. But there is absolutely nothing sexual about naturism. When eventually, you have seen me for long enough like this, it will become normal for you and nothing will happen. In fact, you will soon not even notice it."

"Ok, I understand," he said a bit uncomfortably and the conversation died down as Klaus fell back a little and took his sister's invitation to stare at her nude form, and amazingly enough hardly half an hour later, he found her nudity had vanished from his mind and he could look at her completely calmly.

The journey continued and Melanie found that she had slightly overestimated how long it would take to get back to the farm compound…it seemed that Klaus was beginning to get the hang of sitting on a horse at a faster speed, and as such both mounts had trotted at a fast pace, as a result they had arrived an hour earlier than she anticipated. Soon enough, after crossing a familiar stream, the farm compound came into view.

It was situated on a small plain with a looming sheer mountain overhead to its south side. The compound occupied a footprint of about a hectare of land, with an eight foot high fence around it; which was camouflaged with thick green vines growing on it. Various large trees dotted the compound, the largest of which was an eighty year old gnarled oak tree near the centre of the compound. The ground was covered in luscious, well maintained green lawns, which surrounded the various houses on the compound like a sea of green around islands of manmade stone. The front gate was a near artistic creation of stone, a sloping stone contour that tapered to each side of the entrance, which was wide enough for cars to enter. On the left side, spelled out in a mosaic of smooth river bed stones was '_Villiers Game and Hunting Farm_' and on the right was the Dutch translation '_Villiers Diere en Jag Plaas_'.

Melanie continued onwards and when the two teenagers neared to within two hundred meters of the gate, Klaus coughed slightly.

"Ummm, shouldn't you be getting dressed now, sis," he said uncertainly. Melanie chuckled in response.

"No," she said confidently. "When I started doing this, six years ago, Uncle hit upon the idea of making his farm a 'clothing optional' place. And he makes it quite clear in his advertising brochures he leaves in the various bars, hiking and gun shops all around the country. Since he did that, his occupancy rate has doubled."

"But I haven't seen anyone else naked around here," said Klaus in an alarmed fashion, staring around as if there were suddenly going to jump from the bushes a bunch of naked people and yell, 'Surprise!'. Melanie chucked again.

"That's quite simple to explain," said Melanie, "it's been in deference to your first here since you were six years old that Uncle has asked the guests to refrain from doing that. But the guests have been harping him about it, and he asked me to feel you out on the subject today. No doubt when he sees me he'll immediately conclude that I've been successful."

"I'm not going to have to walk around naked too, am I?" asked Klaus nervously.

"Of course not, if you don't want to," said Melanie astonished, "it's 'clothing _optional_'."

And with that the two teens crossed through the gates of the farm compound. No one was immediately in sight at first as they guided their horses along the cobblestone road made for cars, and headed towards the stables. But as they neared the main house, (incidentally the largest and where their Uncle lived) which was closest to the gate, they saw on the balcony of the second floor their Uncle himself standing and leaning against the railing.

Uncle Hendrik was a tall man, reaching about six foot two; he had short curly hair on his head which had the first showings of grey reaching through the brown. He had an angular face which could scowl angrily enough to make you want to run the other way, but his eyes were the kindly azure blue that all of them shared. He had a strong build with thick, hairy arms and today he wore khaki pants with a khaki cargo shirt, with green shoulder boards showing his Game Ranger affiliation.

"Had fun, Klaus?" he barked humorously.

"Yeah," he said disgruntled. "Not a single sighting today."

"Better luck day after tomorrow then," said Uncle Hendrik. "I see your sister has told you about our little 'option' on this farm. Good. That will please majority of the guests."

"Yeah," repeated Klaus.

"See ya later, Uncle," waved Melanie, as they passed the main house and turned right towards the large stables, which housed all the horses. The farm had eight horses that could be used by the guests, while the two Melanie and Klaus were riding were only allowed to be used by Uncle Hendrik and visiting family members.

They both dismounted and led their respective horses into the stables and Melanie guided Klaus through the 'grooming and maintenance' of the horse. She showed him how to bend the leg of the horse to check the shoe for any debris then took a large brush to groom the horse clean from dust and finally removing the saddlebags and saddle itself. They restocked the mangers with hay and even threw in a carrot as a treat.

Carrying the saddlebags and rifle slings out of the stable, Melanie stopped and quickly pulled off her boots and socks, stuffing them in the saddlebags. She let out a sigh of contentment as her feet were freed from the heavy all terrain boots, and were padding on the soft grass, and finally she felt truly free and liberated…to her there was no other feeling like it in the world as to walk around completely in the nude and feeling the wind gliding softly over her body.

She picked up the saddlebags and rifle again and caught up with Klaus who had stopped only for a few moments to see what his big sister was doing. Soon, Melanie was walking up the steps onto the wide verandah of the main house and walked into it in her brother's wake. They emerged into the entrance hallway; the floor of which was lined in smooth dark floorboards and wood paneling and mounted on walls were nature landscapes; some photographed, some painted. Her Uncle's house had a definite feel of yesteryear to it; from the smell of the air, to the furniture, it was as if you were walking into the eighteenth century.

There were, of course, modern amenities among all this, electric halogen lights adorned the ceiling, and she could hear the cursing and good natured yelling of the guests at the big screen satellite television in the lounge room, no doubt an important Rugby game was going on. And as she walked deeper into the house, she passed her Uncles' study and saw the computer sitting on the ancient mahogany desk; her brother was salivating over the thing, as it was apparently one of the new sixty-four bit processor machines.

Her room in this house was a much more modest affair than the one in her parents' house back in the city. Three meters by three meters, all it had was a single dresser, a single bed in one corner and a small study desk and lamp. She dumped the saddlebags on her bed and carefully pulled out her 30.06 rifle and sat down on the bed. She opened the sliding bolt and pressed small button on the side of the rifle, letting the magazine fall out, checking there was no bullets in the chamber again, she closed the bolt and pulled the trigger, with the muzzle pointed at the ceiling to 'dry fire' the rifle. This was to relax the firing mechanism, which if left tensed for too long would cause the coiled spring inside to remain in position, and effectively ruined the entire bolt action. She slung the weapon back into its leather sling, gathered the magazine and placed it on her small desk and placed the rifle on its specialized wooden mount on the wall. This done she pulled out all her clothes out of the saddlebags and flung them into the small washing basket in the corner of the room.

She walked out into the hallway again and went next door to check on her brother. His room was similar in design to hers and she found that he had unpacked already and had his 'temporary' rifle (since it actually belonged to Uncle Hendrik) also mounted. He had flung himself onto his bed and had his eyes closed, but his breathing was too fast and deep to indicate sleep, so she walked in and pulled the rifle off the mount and quickly did the safety procedure.

"I did do it properly," he said slightly petulantly.

"I know," sighed Melanie, locking the bolt and dry firing the rifle. She placed it back on the mount. "It's not that I think you don't know what you're doing, it's just that you can never be too cautious about weapons. The accidents I've seen and heard stories about don't bear contemplating."

"You've seen a rifle accident?" he blurted astonished sitting up, "was anyone hurt?"

"Yes, and no one was hurt, but it was a close thing," said Melanie. "And believe it or not, it happened to Uncle Hendrik."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes, it was three years ago, he escorted some guests through the mountains in the Willis Jeep," it was a painstakingly restored model dating back to World War 2, Uncle thought it had probably been used in North Africa by the Americans, "he was sitting in the back with his rifles' butt on his foot, and there was a round in the chamber, and his safety was on. But then the jeep hit a nasty bump in the gravel road and it slipped off his foot and hit the floor of the Jeep hard, the shock triggered the spring inside the bolt action, but it was stopped by the safety…he didn't know this though, and then a few minutes later he saw an antelope and just as he switched the safety off the rifle fired prematurely. Luckily, he kept the muzzle up in the air when he did it. But still, it was a nasty shock to him."

"Damn, if he with all his experience could make that mistake…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, then don't take it personally if I second guess you about the way you handle that rifle," said Melanie softly. "Anyway, are you going to get some rest?" Klaus nodded. "Good, just do those stretches again before you fall asleep, okay?" He nodded again. "Good." She turned quickly on the circle her breasts bouncing freely and walked out of the room.

In the hallway, Melanie heard that the sounds from the lounge had stopped and when she glanced into the room she saw only her Uncle was there and all the chairs were empty of guests and the big screen was off.

"Is the game finished?" she asked.

"Yes," nodded her Uncle, it looked as if he had swallowed something foul. "Free State beaten by Northern Blue Bulls, forty two against twenty."

"Yay for my team," she said sarcastically. She was not an avid follower of Rugby, though she kept up with the scores and who won the league. She could not imagine sitting through eighty minutes of a game and scream, groan, curse and cheer at the misfortunes and fortunes of a team. She tentatively supported the Blue Bulls, only because they were based in the city she was born and lived in. "Have you told the guests that 'clothing optional' is allowed again?"

"I did," he said, a gleam in his eye. "There are a few lovely ladies already out there," he stared out the window, "too bad they are all married." Uncle Hendrik was a widower, his wife had died due to breast cancer at the age of forty, that was just seven years ago. Sometimes Melanie thought, he had only allowed his farm to become 'clothing optional' because he missed Auntie Annie. But she didn't think so. Ever since his wife had died, instead of retreating into his shell, he had gained an unquenchable passion for life, to enjoy the gifts God had given him, and appreciate the beauty that came to his farm. Sometimes Uncle Hendrik would just stare at Melanie when she was playing outside in the nude and his eyes twinkled in appreciation and his mouth smiled in contentment…and afterwards without fail he would thank Melanie for giving him the gift of the vision of youth and beauty. Of course, it was not only with her he did this, any female guest walking around in the nude could feel his reverence for their forms in his eyes.

Melanie walked up to the window and could see beyond out on the sea of lush grass; that a group of four nude women in their mid thirties were spreading blankets onto the grass and lay down to catch the last half an hour of decent sun. Their voices could not be heard from this distance but the occasional giggle did reach her ears.

She turned around and spied the remote control for the television on the coffee table.

"Do you mind, Uncle?" she gestured towards the device.

"No, go ahead."

Melanie seated herself deftly on the couch and tucked her legs in under herself and thumbed the remote control. The TV came on the sports channel the men had been watching, showing highlight reruns.

She began flipping the numerous satellite channels available and after finding only reruns of shows she had already seen on her favorite channels like, Discovery, National Geographic, History and MTV, she switched the television off and walked off to the study to check her email account…only to find that Klaus was already there. With a huff, she stalked off to the kitchen and ate a microwave meal…only to find Klaus was still on the net…she returned to her room and snuggled into the bed with a good book…

She didn't remember falling asleep.

The boundaries of the Villiers game farm was well over eight feet of chain link fence; that was also electrified, with barbed wire twirling on top, which was also slanted in both directions to keep things in and also out. At the northeastern part of the boundary something decidedly odd had happened during the night.

In the earth near the fence, there were the impressions of tire tracks and multitudes of footprints belonging to at least three people were scattered in and around the area. The most visible phenomenon on the earth was a meter wide swath of flat ground leading directly towards the fence in a thick, fat line. And right at the point where the line and the fence met…the fence was cut at least halfway up in a square flap like fashion, almost like a supremely enlarged version of a cat flap on a door…except the tracks that let into the Villiers farm was decidedly too big to belong to a house cat…

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Melanie awoke blearily to the sound of birds chirping and in the distance a cockerel announced the rising of the sun.

"Somebody shoot that bloody chicken," she muttered under her breath. She tried to in vain to fall asleep again, once she was awake, she was awake and no amount of trying would cause her to nod off again. She threw off the covers over herself and headed over to the wardrobe. She had the door opened halfway when she realized that she didn't have to wear clothes anymore for Klaus's sake and closed the wardrobe and walked out of the room towards the bathroom. A quick shower took care of her hair which was standing in all directions and a brushing of the teeth removed the icky taste in her mouth.

Staring out the windows, as she walked down the hallway, showed her the rapidly lighting landscape and she decided to treat her Uncle and Klaus to a nice breakfast of French toast, bacon, and freshly squeezed orange juice. It took about half an hour to prepare everything, knowing the quantities of food that Klaus and her Uncle consumed. She ate her share and headed outside, grabbing a towel on the way.

Standing on the verandah she stretched luxuriantly and breathed in the fresh mountain air and headed off towards the centre of the compound. Here was a large rounded pool about fifteen meters in length. Around which were sloped, wooden, adjustable pool chairs. The sun was about fifteen degrees above the horizon and already the area was already coated in a nice warmth.

Melanie spread her towel over a pool chair, and adjusted it so that it resembled a flat bed and lay face down upon it, allowing the sun to bathe her body. A quarter of an hour passed when…

"Excuse me," came a voice from her right. Melanie perched herself up on her arms and looked in the direction of the voice. A young man stood there, he was a shade over five foot seven, with pale skin, he had brown eyes set in a pointed face with soft black hair which was slightly long and parted to the right. He had towel slung across his right shoulder and like her, was wearing nothing else. He had a well toned torso and wiry strong muscle in his arms with broadish shoulders…he was no muscle man, but it was clear he worked out. "May I take this seat?" he gestured to the pool chair two seats away from her.

"Sure," she said nonchalantly, "that what's it's there for." She tried to guess his age and judging from the hair on his chest, maybe twenty four…five.

"Thanks," he said as he draped his towel on the chair. "My name is Steven."

"Melanie," I said in reply.

"Nice to meet you," he said in a dignified tone as he lay on his back allowing the sun to tan his front. I noticed he had a slight lilt in his English which I could not identify.

"So what do you do?" asked Melanie, something triggered her curiosity of this stranger. He opened his eyes and stared at her for a moment, seemingly thinking things through in formulating an answer.

"I am a teacher," he said eventually.

"Of what?"

"I can teach most High School subjects, though my interest lays in Natural Sciences," he replied.

"You don't say," said Melanie wryly, "well, here's me hoping for an 'A' next year."

"You're in Grade Eleven, I take it?" She nodded. "Horrible year," he visibly shuddered in remembrance.

"Tell me about it," she said rhetorically and then frowned in thought. "Which country do you come from?"

"What makes you think I'm a foreigner?" he asked a little abashed.

She smirked, "Your skin is a little too pale for you to come from this country, and your accent, while good, is slightly off,".

"Oh dear I seem to have been caught out," said Steven sarcastically with a merry laugh, his accent now sounded like an American one, Boston, if she had to guess. "Really should have put more effort into it."

"Why try to disguise your accent?" I asked with a frown.

"I suppose I wanted a level of discreetness as I traveled your marvelous country," he said with a lopsided grin.

"I'm guessing if I ask you why you want to be discreet, you'll answer me in some evasive manner then," she stated with a smirk.

"You guess correctly, young lady," he said nodding. "But I was telling the truth about my occupation."

"And what brings you to this hunting farm?" asked Melanie curiously, as she turned over to lie on her back, allowing for an even tan.

"The same thing that brings everybody else, I wanted a holiday in a natural environment, and seeing as I was in the country already…" he shrugged with a grin, "oh, I don't think I'll hunt anything, but I will take on one of the game drives."

"And naturism?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose I am a naturist, getting harder and harder in the 'States to practice it, fucking conservatives," he cussed with distaste.

"Yeah, is it just me, or has America been…I dunno…going down the tubes lately, politically speaking?…if you don't mind me saying so," said Melanie with a wry grin.

"It's because of all this hysteria going on,'" said Steven with a grimace, "about the World Trade Centre terrorism disaster and you've got the excuse the conservatives have been looking for to clamp down. The founding fathers are probably turning in their graves."

"I read once for a report I had to do in school," said Melanie closing her eyes, trying to remember from last years history class, "that Benjamin Franklin said 'Any society that gives up a little liberty for a little security, will gain neither, and in the long run, lose both.'"

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The following day, Klaus had another attempt to bag his elusive Roland Warding antelope trophy. Once again, he and Melanie were out on horses, in the Roland Warding section of the farm. The only difference of course being that this time, Melanie did not wear a stitch of clothing from the start. Klaus himself had been tempted to give it a try, but the instant he even considered the thought of walking out of his room unclothed he got major nerves that shuddered across his body. So he did not join his sister in walking about in the nude, but instead focused on getting his hunting trophy.

Melanie was in turn focused on getting her brother into a position to get his trophy. And it was not easy. The winds did not favor the pair of teenage hunters at all. So she decided to turn their route into the wind, hoping that a suitable antelope would be upwind from them.

She was leading her brother on a pass, the mountain rose steeply to their right, its view near totally obscured by a very low cloud that she could reach up and whip her hand through, to their left the earth was more even in its descent, making for a down angle of twenty degrees.

"Sis, how are we going to see the antelope with this cloud obscuring almost half our sight?" he asked. Melanie sighed…shaking her head.

"If I told once, I told you a thousand times, if you want to hunt you must keep quiet," she whispered intently.

It was just as her hearing returned after speaking that she heard a rapid noise, a noise of the earth being disturbed by a running, heavy quadroped, which sent red alarm bells tingling in her mind. And before she could even think of shouting a warning to Klaus, her horse had reared on its hind legs and was whinnying like mad at whatever it had perceived that she had not.

Melanie had tried to hold on, but it happened too suddenly. There was no time to tighten her feet in the stirrups, no time to get a better grip on the reigns…she fell backwards…the world felt surreal all of a sudden…strangely enough, she felt no pain as her body hit gravel path hard…her head bounced back up off a jagged rock that fate seen fit to put there…she heard a screaming…then the loud reports of three rifle shots one after the other…**blam**, _click, click_, **blam**, _click, click_, **blam**…and then she knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Some form of feeling returned to me, it wasn't touch, or smell, or sight; it wasn't anything I could classify and give a word to. The realization then came that I was indeed thinking. The next feeling that registered was the complete absence of gravity. '_What the fuck_?'I thought. I tried to open my eyes, but it was almost as if they were…not there at all, was I blind?

Sense of time passing was another thing that had vanished, but it quickly gave rise to feelings of frustration. '_Open your eyes, damn it!_' In a rush, as if my thoughts were the mere trigger the visual world snapped into existence and I could feel myself behind the darkness of closed eyes. It took a while to actually open them, it was almost as if I was learning how to do things all over again, not unlike I imagined a baby would have to do it.

My eyes regarded a blue sky above me, spotted with the occasional cloud that seemed to flow by slowly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a looming mountain spearing into the sky. I tried to move next, but again was met with the obstacle of simply not being able to…the instinct of physical movement was gone, and like my eyelids I would seemingly have to find out how to control my own body all over again. It was as I was doing this that I noticed that the world had a distinct…glow or etherealness that had not been there before.

I pondered an explanation for that while getting control back. My only sense of time passing was the clouds moving overhead but it almost seemed as if time…I didn't know how to explain this feeling or instinct…time was now something trivial, something that no longer had any meaning for me. I felt like jumping for joy when I finally managed to move everything above my neck, allowing for a more complete survey of my surroundings.

Only to be totally astounded, I was at the exact place I last remembered being with Klaus when something…an animal had attacked us. I remembered the shots he had fired from his rifle, no doubt trying to kill the attacking animal. Why was I still here? Why wasn't I in hospital? Where was Klaus?

There were no answers to these questions or clues within sight, so I had to get moving, and that required getting control back. With the passage of time marked by the setting and rising of the sun it took me two days to get control of my entire body and normal senses, and yet another to stand. When I had finally regained touch it allowed me to feel a distinctly strange thing, something cold and foreign was seemingly lying on top of my left breast, its segmented nature eventually led me to conclude that it was a chain, and now I could finally get a good look at it…

'What the fuck?'

There seemingly fused in the valley between my breasts were a pentagonal metal buckle and a severed chain hung from it all the way down to my knees. I awkwardly took hold of the chain and studied it. It was chrome plated such that it glinted in the overhead sun, and had that same ethereal feel of the world around me. I was tempted to tug on the thing to see how tightly it was secured to my chest, but thought immediately better of it. Instead carefully feeling the boundary between her skin and the buckle, while it was foreign to my mind, it didn't feel that way to my body, it was integral, necessary.

I sighed and began to walk in a circle, moving my limbs in various ways to get the feel of my body back to an instinctual level, occasionally throwing in a strike with my flat palm or kick when I felt confident enough of my control. I had worked up to trying a jump when I spotted something that made me grind to a stop. On the earth, directly where I had spent the past three days was a large pool of dried blood. For a long while my mind was awhirl struggling with the implications of that. My eyes ranged on the rocky earth around the pool, studying the footprints as best as I was able…I remembered Uncle teaching me that the earth had a memory, a story to tell to the knowledgeable and skilled in the art of reading what was written on it. I was not as good as he was by a long shot, but could discern the basics.

A bloody lion of all things, a female, had attacked both me and my brother. It had stalked us from above the gravel road, up the side of the mountain. It had gone first for my own horse, which had caused me to fall off when it had reared up on its hind legs to free the forward legs to smash the threat. The lion had dodged the attack, but at this point something happened which caused the lion to retreat entirely off down the mountain. My brother's footsteps had rushed towards the pool of blood…here the earth was a mess and I couldn't make out anything except that he had placed his rifle next to the pool of blood.

I could see my brother's footprints now ranging all over the place, eventually disappearing when his horse walked off.

It wasn't difficult to put the pieces together, even though I had no clue what the chain attached to me served or did.

I was most probably dead.

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The shock of that took a while to wear off. I could only sit on a nearby rock, totally oblivious to the fact that the coarseness of it wasn't hurting my bare buttocks or feet as I hugged my legs and stared at that drying pool of what had been my life's blood. When I did get over it, disappointment and anger warred within me. I had been so young, with a whole life to live and now that was gone, stolen by a _lion_ of all things. Lion's were not common at all outside of game farms and nature reserves, not to mention that mountainous terrain was not their favored habitat, flat plains and high grass being their preferred territory. There was also the fact that in no way would my Uncle want a damn lion on his hunting farm. The only hunters here were supposed to be humans.

"It's not fair," I muttered. My eyes ranged up to the sky. "But if I'm dead, why am I still here? Why am I in a body like my own? What's the deal with this chain coming out of my chest?"

There was no answer.

I realized that no further answers would be found here, and hopped off the rock. As my feet touched the ground I realized that my skin was hardly phased by the small sharp pebbles on the road. It was like I was walking on a soft carpet. I bent my leg awkwardly and looked at the soles of my feet…normal, nothing odd there.

Putting that in the back of my mind I began my journey back to the farmhouse compound. I walked at an easy clip and the sun advanced by three hours before it came in sight. It was during this that I also noticed that the light from the sun wasn't really reaching me, the slight burning warmth that usually accompanied the sensation was gone, it was as if I was walking in perpetual night, yet the light was still there.

I saw the first signs of life since my awakening. There were a group of four women lounging on the grass and they were helping each other to smear sun screen on their backs. I stood not a meter from them, and they did not stir or see me, one woman looking straight through me.

"You can't hear me, can you?"

The women didn't respond, and only continued with their idle conversation on the latest happenings in their favorite soap opera. I walked up to them and waved my hand right in front of their faces; they didn't so much as twitch.

"Okay, if I'm a ghost, then…" I swung a flat palm at one of their faces and my hand vanished and went through the woman's head. "Figured that, but then how am I 'standing' on the ground?" I dug my heel into what should've been yielding soft grass and hard earth, but gained none of the sensation that would usually go with that. I remained listening to the women's blather for another five minutes before stalking off, intending to find my Uncle.

The main house was distinctly silent and closed. Not deterred at all I walked easily straight through the door. "Well, that part of being a ghost matches up." I moved down the hallway and straight to my Uncle's study.

He was seated behind the desk in the leather office chair staring blearily at the phone. His eyes were bloodshot red, no doubt from crying and the bags under his eyes proved that he hadn't been getting much sleep. I felt my own eyes start to water in response to the sadness of seeing him in such a state.

"I'm so sorry I'm doing this to you, Uncle."

The phone abruptly rang and he practically ripped it out of its cradle, "de Villiers." He listened intently to the speaker on the other end, and she saw his large hand form into a fist and the poor phone was probably suffering badly from the pressure. "You're sure?" The answer caused him to close his eyes. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate your efforts. Good bye." He placed the phone back in its cradle. His fist abruptly smashed into table. "Fockers!" His voice was strangled and flowing with anger, even hate. His teeth gritted and he clearly struggled to keep himself in check. He then began taking deep in and out breaths, while I watched in shock.

When he reached a state of relative calm, he stood up and walked out heading down the hall and knocked on one of the guest bedrooms. "Klaus."

There was no answer.

"Klaus."

"Go away, Uncle."

I frowned at the misery and despair I sensed in that voice. It was almost a tangible weight on the room beyond the door.

"You need to hear this, and I won't talk through a door at you." His forbidding tone left no room for argument and promised dire consequences should Klaus disobey. I hated it when Uncle talked like this. There were plodding footsteps that resonated on the wooden floor and the click of a lock on the door. Uncle Hendrik opened it immediately. I gasped at the sight of my brother, he looked like he hadn't cleaned up for days, his hair was askew, his eyes were even more bloodshot than their Uncle's, and his face was very pale.

"What is it?"

"The police just phoned," Uncle sighed deeply, rubbing his face wearily. "You're not responsible for your sister's death."

"What? Impossible! I shot her…"

"What?" I gasped in shock.

"No! Let me finish, idiot!" snapped Uncle Hendrik. "She was killed falling off the horse when it reared back. Trauma to the back of her neck caused it to break instantly, it was a bad fall. You scared the lion off with your shots, which saved your own life and only inadvertently hit your sister's body."

Klaus blinked as he took that in, and tears started to fall. I swore I could feel the despair in the room be entirely replaced with only a gnawing sadness. "Oh…is it…bad to feel relief now?"

"No, it's very natural, Klaus. Especially considering the legal consequences if you had indeed accidentally killed you sister."

Klaus nodded ruffling his own hair in a gesture of weariness, "Any word on how a lion got onto your farm?"

"No," Uncle Hendrik shook his head. "The workers are still combing the perimeter fence to look for any possible entry point and so far the hunts I've led with the volunteers haven't found the lion itself. We're more likely to first find the remains of the antelope it will soon be using for its first meal on the farm."

"Can…can I go on the next hunt for it?"

Uncle Hendrik raised a bushy eyebrow. "Yes. You are, however, not going looking like such a mess. Grab a shower and get back to me when you're human again."

"Yes, Uncle."

It was only as I watched my Uncle leave that I realized that his emotional reaction after the phone call of the police didn't match up with the version of events that he had told Klaus. He had clearly cursed 'someone' or a group of someones after the call. She doubted it was the police; they had after all done their job, apparently doing an autopsy of her body, since my death had presumably resulted from a gunshot. Now that that was no longer the case, it was clearly an accident, right?

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It was later that same afternoon that a very familiar car pulled into the compound. I had taken to haunting my uncle and there were some occasions where I saw him shiver or narrow his eyes vaguely in my direction before shaking it off and continuing with his duties and accepting the condolences of the various guests who saw him. He was near the stables when the car came to a stop and two people emerged from either side.

"Mom, Dad," I sighed, wishing I could hug them. My parents were understandably not looking good. My mother looked like she could barely keep her willowy tall figure upright, and despite her vibrant blonde hair being properly done up, her usual spry energy was all but gone making it seem dull. My father, visibly at least, hardly looked phased at all that his only daughter had just died. He could've just stepped out of the boardroom at the mining company, and was dressed in an elegant fancy suit, tie and all. The only clue that I had that he was in pain, was that weird other sense I had gained since dying…his heart was near shattered and his…aura…no his own spirit was dull.

Uncle Hendrik waved listlessly, "How did it go?"

Dad coughed clearing his throat. "Funeral's arranged for when the police release her body. Has there been any word on a date I have to give the funeral home?"

"Four days, got word this morning from them."

"And what about Klaus?" I felt my heart strain at how frail my mother's voice sounded.

"You can relax, little sis," Uncle walked up to her and put a supportive hand on her shoulder. "The police aren't pressing any charges. The autopsy showed she died from the fall off the horse, the gunshot from Klaus was afterward." He had to abruptly catch her as her legs gave out from under her as she started to cry from sheer relief. Her dad rushed forward to embrace her as well. "Let's get her in the house."

I followed them anxiously as I worried about my mother's condition. They put her in the living room and whilst Uncle brewed some sweet tea for her. The two brothers-in-law left only after they were assured she was fine.

"I'm okay, I just want to have a nap for a moment," her eyes were already closed.

"All right, honey. Just call the instant you need anything," my father stroked mom's cheek affectionately. She said yes vaguely and fell into slumber almost immediately. As much as I wanted to remain with mom, I was still as curious as a cat about why my Uncle had reacted so badly. Hopefully he and dad would talk about it.

I found them both in the study, seated on opposite sides of the desk and nursing glasses filled with brandy. For a long while they just sat there and were in what my mom always called 'screen saver mode'. It was apparently only something men could do, zone out and think of nothing at all or be so absorbed in a task that the world didn't exist around them, guess that was why those guards in front of Buckingham Palace that imitated statues were all men.

"Jan," my Uncle eventually said.

"Hmmm?"

"I believe Mel's death was…not really premeditated but…"

My dad's eyes narrowed and speared my Uncle with a penetrating look. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sure that soon I'll get a report from my workers, that they found a gap in the perimeter fence, and that this was where the lion's footprints first began."

"So? A lion happened to find a busted portion of your fence then…"

"No, no," Uncle shook his head. "The possibility of a wild _African_ lion female in this part of the country is remote to the extreme. There are no game farms nearby that have them and I keep the perimeter fence in good repair, I have to, the animals on this farm are my livelihood, can't have them getting out."

My dad caught on quickly. "You're suggesting the lion was purposefully put within the farm?"

"Yes, it was in the Roland Warding section and you know how much that class of antelope are worth."

I could see a vein start to throb in my father temple and the world turned red with rage, yet his voice was still perfectly collected. "Someone put a lion on your farm to attack the antelope, to drive you out of business?"

"A single lion will at most kill two antelope before we hunt it down, that's inconsequential to the antelope population I have. No, this is an attack on the farm's reputation. After all, who wants to hunt where the possibility exists that _you_ might be the _hunted_ instead?" Uncle looked out the window. "They probably just intended for the lion to gobble a few antelope, then they would let word leak out, but now that Mel is…gone…"

I gaped at them…I was killed because someone just wanted to ruin my Uncle's farm!

"Do you have any idea who 'they' are?"

I could only wince at the spike of righteous anger and rage coming from dad.

"I can't say exactly, any of the farms in this area would benefit from a larger slice of the pie."

"Anyone with a grudge?"

Uncle Hendrik rubbed his face wearily. "I pretty much pissed off all of my neighbors when I made this place 'clothing optional'."

"But do any of them have access and permits to get their hands on a lion?"

"A lion is one of the Big Five; they're protected by law, to own one 'legally' on a game farm is a nightmare of red tape and money. Any such lion is also well documented; everything all the way down to its DNA pattern is recorded."

"The lion would be easily linked back to its owner then or in this case the culprit," my father nodded in understanding. "It would be a smoking gun that leads back to him."

"Therefore whoever did this probably poached the animal, I'll make some enquiries to see if there are any missing with the government and some of my contacts in the National Parks."

"That's probably a dead end though, unless we're talking about someone stupid," my father was somewhat calmed down and looked pensively into space. "We can only hope that evidence can be found at the perimeter fence."

I left the room almost not believing what I had heard and returned to my mother in the living room. I idly tried to sit down next to her on the couch, only to fall through ass first until I hit the strange soft solid floor that existed everywhere. I looked down and my body from shoulders up was sticking out of the couch. "This sucks; I'm a ghost so why can't I float up anywhere?"

I stood up and had to settle with simply standing and watching my sleeping mother. "Oh, how I wish I could just talk to you one last time, mom. If only to say goodbye and that I love you."

"It's just goodbye for fifty years or so, Ms Harrold."

I gasped at the friendly voice coming from my left. The owner of that voice stood in the doorway, a pleasant smile on his lantern jawed face and his sapphire blue eyes twinkled knowingly from underneath a mop of messy brown hair. He was dressed in an all black suit, complemented with a black tie, shirt and shiny leather shoes. Finally, in his right hand, was an elegant shiny black cane, which he was idly fiddling with.

I turned to face him warily. "So you can see me, huh? Who are you?"

"My current identity is Ken Fitzgerald. I'm here to see you to your next destination: Soul Society."

"Uh," I blinked in uncertainty. "That's heaven, right?"

"That's the current term for it in the material realm, yes."

I laughed a bit to cover my relief at hearing that. "So you're an Angel of Death or something?"

"Yes, indeed, Ms Harrold, though the proper term is Death god."

I tapped the pentagonal steel buckle and chain hanging from my chest. "So what's the deal with this new fashion accessory, Mr Death god?"

"That was your Chain of Fate, it was cut when you died," he explained. "And please, just call me Ken."

I saw and sensed that 'Ken' was feeling rather bemused, so satisfied that he wasn't really a threat to me I turned to look at my sleeping mother. "Would she be able to see you?"

"No. Communicating with the living is only allowed under very special circumstances and controlled conditions."

"Mysteries of life and all that," I nodded in understanding, though it didn't stop me from feeling sadness anew that I really wouldn't be able to say goodbye. "I don't suppose we could wait until my funeral?"

Ken laughed, "You want to attend your own funeral? Don't be ridiculous, Ms Harrold. Funerals are for the living, it's their way of saying goodbye and assuaging their own hearts of your absence, my dear. There is also danger the longer we delay your journey to Soul Society."

"What danger?"

The Death god sighed and a distinctly put-upon expression crossed his face, I imagined he'd had this conversation countless times before. "There are two dangers you face now, firstly your Chain of Fate will start to erode the longer you stay in the material world, as it happens you will become more regretful, angry at the lack of contact, isolated, the more negative emotions you feel the faster the chain erodes, and when it's gone you will lose your human heart and become a fallen soul or as it's commonly called, a Hollow."

"I take it they're bad?" I fingered my Chain of Fate absently and realized that it was indeed shorter by a link.

"They're like a bestial rabid animal with ever changing forms and a rainbow of abilities all catered to one thing, to help them fill the hole where their heart used to be. The way they try to do that is by devouring either other Hollows or their preferred meal…souls in your current state."

I gulped nervously at that and looked around. "You wouldn't happen to know if any are nearby?"

"None at present, you are lucky that you died in a sparsely populated area, Hollows are attracted to areas like cities, where a lot of death occurs and they have an easier time of gobbling up a soul. There are only so many Death gods and we can't protect everyone." He suddenly grinned at me. "I'm actually on a light-duty rotation by being assigned to this province."

"Damn, Gauteng must be a spiritual hot house," I concluded. It was the smallest central province of South Africa, but the most densely populated, and the amount of death due to accident, crime and other causes, it didn't bear thinking about.

"It's one of the world's Hollow hot spots," Ken nodded. "Generally, all cities with five million plus populations are spiritual battlegrounds."

"There's still war after this?"

"Not in the way it's defined on Earth, your soul can't die its energy after all. But it can be forcefully changed by another soul or absorbed by a Hollow. You could 'die' in Soul Society, but you'd just be reborn in the material world with a completely new and unique personality having no memory of your past life."

"Oh, so it's a death of personality," I considered that for a moment. It seemed that the Eastern religions had it right in terms of reincarnation at least. "What about God? Doesn't He object to people 'fighting' in Soul Society?"

"Oh, He objects," Ken nodded with wide eyes. "You don't leave behind free will once you get to Soul Society. However, with free will comes choice and people will choose wrongly. Also, don't you think it would be frighteningly boring if there was constant 'peace' in Soul Society, considering that there you would be immortal to time. There has to be a balance."

"Ying yang, yang ying," I nodded in understanding. "Will I get to meet Him?"

Ken winced. "How can you truly meet that which cannot be defined, is infinite and everlasting? Even the ultra elite Royal Guard only meet God's avatar and the Royal Family…the souls descended from the God's brief time on Earth… however, you'll feel Him or Her all the time in Soul Society." He pulled out a cellphone of all things, flipped it open and consulted it briefly. "We better hurry this up and send you on, I've got another appointment."

"Can I just have a last goodbye?" I pleaded.

"Ten minutes, I'll meet you outside the house."

Ken turned around and disappeared down the hallway, his cane idly tapping on the floor. I turned back to mom and fixed the sight of her peaceful sleeping form in my memory. "Till we meet again."

I found my brother in his room after having just come from his shower. He was standing with a towel wrapped around his waist and considering different outfits.

"I better not see you for another eighty years, little bro," I declared in a mock stern voice. "Although considering scientific progress I might have to tag on another few decades maybe even a century on top of that. I hope you have a good life, I'm sorry that I won't get to live it with you, but I have to get off this train now." My eyes were blurry with tears which I had to wipe away. "Love ya."

"Oh well," Klaus murmured and chucked the clothes on his bed, dropped his towel and walked straight out of room. I laughed at the sight of him finally overcoming that hurdle of fear. I visited both my dad and Uncle for the last time, again fixing them in my memory. "Don't be in a rush to join me, Dad…Uncle." I vainly tried to hug my dad through the chair he was sitting in, but it was the thought that counted at least.

I emerged from the house to see Ken looking at me expectantly. "All done?" I nodded. "Good, come stand in front of me."

I complied nervously. "How does this work?"

"It's called the Soul Burial," he explained, and abruptly his cane morphed into an ornate Saber within a brown scabbard. "This is my Soul Slayer, one of the main weapons of a Death god. It's as simple as touching your forehead with its pommel. Once that's done you will disappear from this plane, the next time you awake, you will be in Soul Society."

I now felt distinctly like there were butterflies in my stomach. "Go ahead, and…thank you."

He withdrew the gleaming blade that resonated powerfully within me and in an eyeblink he had the pommel pressed against my forehead. "You're welcome, Ms Harrold. Perhaps I will see you in the future."

The world was becoming blurry around me, filled a bright blue glow and a feeling of peace and sheer bliss all in one wrapped around me like a thick blanket. My awareness was swallowed up in it and I fell unconscious in it.

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Death god Ken Fitzgerald stared at the empty space which Ms Harrold had occupied with some astonishment, and watched as the Hell Butterfly fluttered away to guide her soul between the dimensions. The ancient Futhark sigils that had briefly appeared on her forehead were rather intriguing in their content; it definitely merited a visit to the Spirit Library…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I gasped as I awoke and sat up from my prone position, regarding my new surroundings. A clear blue sky sprinkled with wisps of cloud, tall trees emerging from the earth, a mixture of pine and oak with deep green leaves, below, perfect lawn green grass. I smiled with joy as I realized I could feel each blades of grass between my fingers, I could smell the fragrance of the forest that surrounded me, I could feel a breeze of wind singing between the boughs and all over my skin, the sun's rays now gave me a perfect warmth. Birds chirped to each other in a perfect melody of nature. I felt like I could spend an eternity just lounging back here.

I closed my eyes exploring that _other_ sense, which was now as busy as my eyes were, perhaps it was that 'Third eye' shown in some philosophies. I sensed the very energy of life around me like the radiance of sun only not so bright. I wished I could've been a poet because mere words failed to express it. I understood now why Ken had said that you could feel God everywhere in Soul Society.

My contentment was interrupted though by a familiar feeling that surprised me greatly, and it was accompanied by growl coming from my stomach. I was hungry. I cast my mind back and abruptly realized that I hadn't actually eaten anything in my days as a ghost on Earth and now that I had returned to 'life' so to speak here in Soul Society my stomach was probably running on fumes by now. I stood and took a good look around the forest I was in, there were no fruit bearing plants in sight so I picked the tallest tree nearby and began a climb to get a view of the forest canopy.

Up here it was forest almost as far as the eye could see, with a snaking gap to the east that had to be either a road or a river going in a northerly and southerly direction, to the north just more pine and oak, but west I spotted a species of tree that I knew would yield edible nuts. South was hillier and the trees were less numerous and I was reasonably certain that there would be smaller plants there, which could yield other fruits or edible roots.

I descended the tree carefully and started walking west, as I pondered what else I needed to do. Find and investigate any civilization? That can come later. I was actually feeling quite content in truly applying the survival skills my Uncle had taught me, and wondered if this why God had put me in this specific spot of Soul Society. I shrugged it off and began looking on the forest floor and soon hit paydirt with shelled nuts, which I broke open surprisingly easy. On Earth I usually had to have a rock or small hammer to get at the insides, not so here. The nut inside looked like the type safe for consumption and with a tiny bite, even tasted the same. I popped the whole thing in my mouth and began to chew it. Satisfied I began to forage for more until my stomach was somewhat less unhappy only now I found that I was thirsty from the dry nuts.

So I turned and headed east to what I hoped was a river. On the way there I began planning a shelter in my mind. A simple lean-to would have to suffice at first, and it would require a lot of branches that I would have to break off trees, but I resolved to find use as much dead wood as I could get away with. I really didn't want to spoil this paradise I had landed in. Soon the sound of rushing water confirmed the presence of a river, and when it came into view I could only gasp. She doubted that any such river still existed on Earth, the water was as if it came straight from a mountainous run-off or natural spring. Looking down I could see the various fish swimming around down there and grinned at the thought of tasty fish – which would neatly satisfy my protein requirements. Of course, I would first need fire before then.

I palmed water into my mouth until I was satisfied that my thirst was gone. "Okay, add fishing spear to my list, or at least until I can make a rope to dangle bait." Knowing that the 'Survival List' would only get longer I turned from the river to begin ticking off those necessities. It would be a challenge, but one which I loved.

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By my own personal calendar four months had passed before I met another person in Soul Society. The time was relatively uneventful bar from my continuing effort to master the nascent survival skills I had been taught, of which fishing proved to be the most difficult. The first hurdle to overcome had been fashioning a spear and fishing rod, former being difficult while the latter was easy once I had finally managed to master making rope from peeling the branches of a Willow tree. I had to first fashion a sharpening tool by successfully breaking a rock into the desired shape. It was in doing this that I had first discovered that I was now considerably stronger than what I considered human norms. I could take a piece of rock and crumble it into pieces like a vice with merely my hands. This strength could've had nothing to do with mere muscles, so it was clear something else was going on and it was only when I paid attention to my _Other_ sense that it started to become clear. It was as if I was unconsciously pulling in ambient energy and using my own energy, what my Sensei would call Chi, to harden my skin and produce extreme opposing Chi pressures. It was something that as a human I could never have achieved to this degree.

That naturally led to see if I could hit rock in such a manner with it to create the stone blades. It took a lot of trial and error, but finally I was able to make a blade and sharpen it enough for my needs. Carving the spears also took a lot of work but soon I had a decent supply after discovering what a distracting activity whittling them could be.

I had made peace with cutting down two large trees to provide wood for my needs and pretty soon had upgraded my rickety lean-to shelter with bamboo leaf floor, to a much more solid wooden tent like structure and solid bamboo floor. I had also discovered the first land animals during this time, a wild boar of all things, and it was indeed fortunate I had a spear with me and for the first time hardened all my skin with Chi instinctively during the battle which neatly prevented the damn thing's tusks from slicing me open. I didn't like eating pork, so merely knocked it out with the reverse end of my spear and dumped it on the other side of the river to recover.

My hair on my head was another item of interest to me; it had had a sudden inexplicable growth spurt in the third month since my arrival in Soul Society, so that its black locks now reached to my ankles. Yet hair which had normally grown in other places were nowhere to be found, but had in fact receded completely. My body was proving to also be intriguing mystery in some respects. Besides the selective hair growth thing, it was also taking me longer and longer to work up a sweat and tire myself out, and naturally the pressures of such an active lifestyle had left me quite toned in a way that going to a gym never could.

Then in the fourth month it happened, and it was also my first brush with the unpleasantness that could occur in Soul Society.

I was spear fishing at the time, standing up to my knees in the river with a wooden spear held loosely up and ready to stab in an instant. I still sucked at throwing the spear any further than five meters. I was about to hurl the spear when I heard splashes coming from beyond the bend of the river and out of immediate sight. It was the sound of feet running and forcing their way through the shallows of the river.

First to appear was a boy who I judged as younger than my brother Klaus. He was running as fast as his short legs could carry him, hugging a large pot securely to his chest. I saw his wild and wet ash blond hair cling to his face and he had a look of sheer desperation. He wore a blue short frock and shirt of all things, which was also soaked.

Then his pursuers rounded the corner. Two burly men, one older than the other but clearly related, they were also in frocks and shirts, but much more fancier, and each had a small heavy bat in their hands which they waving menacingly.

"Come back here, thief!" one shouted after the fleeing boy.

The apparent little thief ignored them and kept on running. I was rather impressed at the little guy's turn of speed and stamina. That he could outrun these guys as far as he had without getting overtaken, especially considering that I had encountered no 'civilization' thus far for ten kilometers in every direction. It also spoke of how the two shopkeepers were desperate to get the little guy.

I debated what to do for a moment and decided after asking myself 'What would I do if it was Klaus running so desperately toward me?'

I walked out of the river twirling the spear until I held it more like a staff, both my hands on it and held at waist level. I stepped directly into the path of the boy and he finally spotted me. The look of shock on his face was rather amusing and he came to a dead stop and stared at me with grey eyes. His face was already red from exertion but it got even more so as I was sure he was blushing.

I found it odd that people bothered with clothes even in the afterlife; did we even have to hang on to that old shame in heaven? It was probably a hangover from life on Earth that had even found its way here. The two shopkeepers were also stopped in their tracks at the sight of me. I didn't like what I saw in their eyes.

"Did you steal that pot, boy?" I asked pleasantly. The blond boy looked shyly to the ground and wouldn't meet my eyes. "Answer me," I insisted with a hint of sternness. He nodded. "Are you hungry?" Again he nodded. "I have food, which I will share with you. Give back the good gentlemen their pot." The boy looked up again this time meeting my eyes before abruptly putting the pot down and rushing past to hide himself behind me.

"Heh," snorted the older shopkeeper, while the younger one picked up the pot. "That thief has been a pest on my store for too long and pests need to be stamped out lest more breed." He menacingly slapped his bat into his own hand.

"You've got your merchandise back," I said evenly. "He won't bother your shop again."

"And how can you guarantee that?" the younger one asked with a lecherous grin.

"If he stays with me then he'd have no cause to bother…" I shrugged.

The older shopkeeper shook his head. "I'm sorry, but we have to set an example."

"You would kill this child _just_ to discourage thievery from your shop?"

The younger one laughed suggestively. "Yes, and when we're done with that, I think we'll have a little _fun _afterward."

My heart started to race and I narrowed my eyes, glaring at the two shopkeepers. They took that as their cue to rush at me, their bats swinging for my head. The attacks were clumsy and predictable. I ducked at the last moment, leaving them badly off-balance. I surged the blunt end of my spear into the younger's stomach while snap kicking the knee of the older in a direction it was not designed to go. The crack of breaking bone, the sound of retching and scream of pain filled the area. My fear had now changed into an anger as I whirled around, keeping myself in a balanced stance.

"Bitch! I'll…" snarled the elder from the ground, clutching his ruined leg. I had the sharp edge of my spear poised on the younger shopkeeper's back, ready to run him through.

"I so _detest_ that word," I murmured.

The younger suddenly slumped forward as if a great weight was being pushed down on him, the same was happening to the elder, and the young thief was also down on his knees and breathing heavily. It was almost as if the gravity in the area had tripled or something, at least for them.

"Please…" the boy moaned. "Stop…can't…"

I didn't know what to stop but stepped forward anyway and kicked over the younger shopkeeper so he wasn't being suffocated with his face being compressed in the sand. He moaned in pain and gasped, struggling mightily to get in any air. "I would ask why you think you deserve to be in Soul Society! Killing a child? Rape? I should send you packing back to the material universe."

I walked away from them and it was only as I finally paid attention to my Other sense that I understood. It was as if I was a blazing sun that was pushing down with its gravity, that's the only way I could put it into words. I tried calming down to see if that would do the trick, but it didn't seem to help at all. I tried going into what Ninjitsu called Void, a state where you send all thought and emotion into a figurative mental flame to become serene, yet focused, ready to act.

The boy thief gasped in relief and I knew I was successful. The two shopkeepers also looked relieved and the younger one stood with effort, clutching his ribs and he regarded me with fear.

"Take your pot and your lives, go."

They did, hobbling as fast as they could go. I watched them until they turned the corner and vanished from view. I turned around and plastered a smile on my face for the boy, who was simply seated awkwardly on the dirty riverbank and looking at me with wide eyes. "What's your name?"

"Kisuke..." He looked down shyly his cheeks coloring.

"Well, Kisuke, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Melanie…now I believe you're hungry?" He nodded. "Then follow me."

I walked into the forest just listening for his footsteps to make sure he was behind me. We arrived at my home some time later and he looked curiously around. I gestured to a log beside the firepit. "Have a seat while I get you that food." I opened some of the weaved baskets I had made, put a selection of nuts, fruits and a half a fish fillet I had left over from last night into a plate-like basket.

Kisuke accepted the food, only saying, "Thank you, Miss Melanie," before digging in near-ravenously.

I sat on another log and put my spear against the wood tent. The fire was down to embers by now, but I sat poking it with a stick anyway while watching the boy eat.

"So why do you always steal from that shop?"

Kisuke paused while biting into a fruit. "It's a game I play."

"A game," I thought about it. "You try to steal and get away with it?"

"Yes, I play it with my friends; we try to see how fast we can get away from the shopkeeper. Only this time I think they'd had enough and were waiting in ambush for me."

"So you don't actually need to steal to get food?"

"No."

"But you're clearly not faking your current hunger, so…"

"I trained in hand-to-hand combat to exhaust my spirit energy before we began the game; it makes it more difficult, forces us to find solutions other than just relying on Flash Steps."

I didn't know what Flash Steps were but I could imagine it had something to do with moving very fast. It was entirely conceivable that there was way more one could do with Chi or 'spiritual energy' than just chop rock or trees with your bare hands.

"So where do you live?"

He said it as if I would know, "Seritei."

"Is that a city or town?"

Kisuke showed surprise, the first proper expression on his face besides that of shyness. "You don't know?"

"I've only been in Soul Society for four months; this forest is all I know of it," I shrugged.

"Oh, isn't that lonely?"

"I enjoy solitude and being in nature. So what is so significant about Seritei?"

"It's the home and headquarters for the Death gods; it's also where the oldest and most powerful families and clans in Soul Society live."

That single sentence led to a lot of conclusions, most of which I didn't like.

"You are part of one of those families?"

He nodded. "Yes, the Urahara's, they're a minor clan."

"So where are we now?"

"Rukongai, it's the one thousand six hundred spirit miles of territory surrounding Seritei. Specifically North District Sixty Three in this continent of the spiritual plane. My friend Yoriuchi's family, has a house within fifteen spirit miles of here."

I pondered that and sincerely wished for a map. There was gravity, so Soul Society was probably situated on a planet, probably in another universe, considering the very different stars in the night sky, or perhaps heaven followed no 'logical' universal constraints and I should just chuck out the physics rulebook entirely here in the afterlife. "How long is a spirit mile?"

Kisuke held his arms apart as far as they could go, curving his fingers inward. "Two thousand of these."

About two kilometers then.

My conversation with Kisuke went on for a few hours, I asked him about a lot of the minutiae in the afterlife. There was actually a government that ran the day to day affairs of Soul Society, the Central Forty Six Senate, which somewhat mollified my liberal democratic sensibilities a bit – though Kisuke didn't know on what basis they were chosen. They were the judicial and executive arms rolled into one, and gave orders to the Death gods, who acted as Soul Society's military; protecting the souls in heaven and in the material realm from Hollows and even rebellious elements, crime, and belligerent minor kingdoms run by noble families in Soul Society.

The Death gods themselves were organized into Thirteen Protection Squads, each commanded by a Captain. I imagined them to be Generals in effect, considering the numbers under their command. They were all commanded by the Captain Commander of the First Squad, a two thousand year old soul by the name of Yamamoto Genryuusai. There was also two other independent aspects to the military, the Secret Mobile Corps or Special Forces, who were essentially the military police and covert operations branch, while the even more secretive Kido Corps were those who specialized in using and manipulating pure spiritual energy into spells to achieve various effects and operated the gateways between the afterlife and the living world.

The rational part of me scoffed at the idea of 'magic spells', but then again it would also have scoffed at the idea of having the strength I'd discovered within myself. The proof is in the pudding, as they say and I'd eaten that pudding.

Kisuke had to leave an hour before sunset as his friends would be worried about him if he was too late. I invited him to return at any time as I would enjoy the conversation and company. He thanked me for the meal, giving me that shy look again, blushing as he stared at me a last time before waving and running off to the east. I was rather impressed that he never questioned me about my nudity, he just accepted it or maybe he assumed that I had died without clothes (true) and since I've never been close to civilization or didn't have money to buy clothes (money in the afterlife?) that I just didn't bother with it.

I returned to the river and managed to catch a few fish before the world was plunged into night. I managed to get my fire going rather quickly today, I was seemingly getting it down pat, so to speak.

After my own dinner, I sat down in a half-lotus position in front of the fire and stared into its hypnotic depths. Soon I was imagining a similar fire within my mind and set about exploring what I had seen briefly during my confrontation with the shopkeeper.

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I was rather rudely awoken a few weeks later.

There's nothing like the rear end of your wooden tent being crumbled by some massive creature crash landing on it for a wakeup call. The sickly feel of its power washed over my senses and sent my heart racing. I scrambled out the other side with all the speed I could muster. In my desperation I had pushed my power through my legs and probably achieved a new speed record for myself. A normal human generally walked at five kmh and ran at a sprint twenty seven. I'd recently been counting myself at double that, able to cross sixteen meters in a second. I'm definitely making Kisuke a big thank you gift for showing me the basics of Flash Steps. He had said that he didn't want his new _angel-friend_ to be killed, eaten or captured by the criminal elements because I had high spirit power, but unable to use it to defend myself.

I whirled around and saw my first Hollow.

The thing was picking itself out of the debris of my tent. The closest thing it resembled to my mind was the flying demons the Ringwraiths flew on, out of the Tolkien mythos, except this thing was a dark burgundy in color, had a perfectly circular hole in its chest and a moonlight white mask with a cruel nose over its face. The thing hadn't seen me or felt me due to the fact that I had been asleep and my power wasn't amped up at all. This Hollow was all eyes for another flaring spiritual power I sensed in the sky overhead.

Using as little energy as possible I flash stepped further away and up a tree to get a better look.

A Death god with drawn Soul Slayer gleaming in the moonlight, standing in mid air by gathering spirit particles under his feet, in a battle posture and waiting for the Hollow to attack.

It screamed in a bestial challenge to the Death god. It felt like a fingernails on chalkboard, the crunch of ice and the ripping of cardboard combined into a singular sensation that traveled up and down my spine. I gritted my teeth to repress the shudder than ran through my body.

Its wings flapped once and it was instantly propelled into the air, and I noticed that they had numerous spikes that jutted forward, and that it was aiming to gore the Death god with them.

The Death god managed a superb dodge, stepping out of the line of attack at the last possible moment with a brief flash step. His or her sword cut a long slash right along the Hollow's left wing. I was surprised that the wing hadn't been lopped right off, but the Hollow's skin was probably made of stern stuff that needed quite a bit more power to overwhelm the spiritually enhanced skin. The Death god narrowly dodged the Hollow's spiked tail as he or she passed by that area.

The two combatants whirled around to face each other, readying for another attack. It really made me wish I had some sort of heavy caliber machine gun, a nice fifty cal Browning would do the trick, as the whole business with swords struck me as inefficient and primitive. Oh, I understood that the Soul Slayer actually cleansed the sins of the Hollow and returned the soul into the cycle of reincarnation, but a powerful enough machine gun shooting some sort of spiritually imbued metal could nicely injure and immobilize the thing and then the Soul Slayer could easily be used to dispatch it.

The battle continued, the Death god managing to get underneath the swooping Hollow and leave a deeper slash along its stomach that started to leak blood visibly, but this time the Hollow managed to land a hit of its own with its hind claws that sent the Death god reeling and tumbling to crash down into the forest below. The Hollow swooped down and landed, screaming that eerie noise that sent my teeth on edge. I flash stepped closer, keeping to the tops of the trees to see.

The Death god was in trouble. That last slash had hit across the right collar bone and she…I finally saw in the overhead moonlight… was struggling to raise her Soul Slayer in defense.

The Hollow opened its mouth, craning its neck down and looming to swallow the Death god whole.

My decision to move hardly felt like it had been done of conscious volition.

My power flared into full blossom and flash step turned the world into a blur of color.

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Abhati Sangwan despaired and cursed her own stupidity.

What had she been thinking to get so fixated on her squad's target that she ended up leaving them behind? She was not a seated officer, who could take on this strength of Hollow on their own, but she was the fastest in sixth squad of the Thirteenth Division, and this Hollow was on even terms with her skill in Flash step, so she had left them behind in the tunnel vision induced haze of battle. Now she was on the ground, sword arm useless due to a broken collar bone, about to be gobbled up by this abomination which would only grow stronger after it subsumed her spiritual energy and personality.

Through the body numbing pain and bleeding, she awkwardly transferred her Soul Slayer to her left hand and futilely raised it against the looming Hollow. She doubted she had enough strength left to pierce its strong hide, never mind damaging its mask. It would soon snap her up like someone tossing a snack into their mouth.

She gasped when a spiritual pressure exploded into being nearby, pressing down on her, the pain in her shoulder nigh doubled. The Hollow felt it as well, judging by how it slumped a bit, it whirled to confront the new threat but too late. A blurred form hit its head from the side with such violence and power that the entire Hollow was flung bodily through the trees, smashing and uprooting them entirely, great clumps of earth were flung into the air which spread and fell all over the area.

A blurred form flash stepped into existence a few feet away from Abhati, and it was…dancing?

"Ow, ow, fuck, fuck, fuck, that hurt," a woman's soprano voice with a hint of youth still there complained in the night. The young woman sat down and vigorously rubbed her feet. "Crap!" she stood up abruptly looking off to the side. "Uh, can I use your Soul Slayer? It's recovering."

Abhati was too in a daze and the woman's heavy spiritual pressure still pushing down on her to do anything other but nod.

"Thanks," the woman snatched it quickly out of her weak grasp. "Bisect the mask, right?"

"Yes."

The darkened form vanished into flash step. There was an unearthly screaming; more crashes of trees and finally the Hollow's spiritual pressure vanished. The young woman blurred into existence and Abhati gasped in pain as the heavy power pushed down on her again.

"Sorry!" she moaned and the pressure dropped slowly, until it merely felt like someone was leaning on her. "I'm not good at controlling my output properly yet. Oh, here's your sword back."

Abhati accepted her sickle bladed Soul Slayer back and finally focused on her rescuer; tall, a very long mane of black hair, all over tanned skin, a toned, lithe, athletic body yet still clearly feminine, a prominent fact due to her nudity. Her endowment made Abhati slightly jealous as well. The young woman kneeled next to her and began to examine the wound.

"Tsk, not much I can do beside stem the bleeding," she reached down to the legs of Abhati's Death god robes and ripped a long strip of the material off. The young woman wrapped it carefully over the wound. Abhati moaned in pain when the knot was tightened. "Sorry, had to be done." She ripped another longer piece from her robes and adding a stick immobilized her right arm in a sling. "Don't tell me you fought that thing alone?"

"Became… separated…" Abhati gasped, breathing through the pain.

"Do you have any method to signal your fellows?"

"They should've felt my battle, not to mention the flare of your power; they're only a few miles distant."

"You don't have radios?"

Abhati frowned in confusion. "What's a radio?"

"Never mind," the strange woman waved it off, looking distracted. "So you're okay?"

"I will be once I get taken to the Fourth Division." Abhati tried to clear her mind enough, and after a bit of effort located the concentrations of spirit energy that represented the rest of her squad. "Yes, they're on their way here."

"Good," the woman stood. "I suppose I gotta go."

"Wait," Abhati protested. "Thank you for saving me."

"You're welcome. It's the least I could do."

"What's your name?"

"Mel. Be safe out there." The woman's form blurred away into flash step.

'_Do you think the others would believe me?_' she thought to her Soul Slayer.

'_A nude woman flash steps against a Hollow feet first and then borrows me to purify it. Heh heh. The Captain would, but don't know about the others. I felt her power when she wielded me; it's unique to say the least._'

'_So that's how she hit it? Good grief, it's a wonder she didn't break her legs!_'

Her Squadmates appeared all around her and only after the Lieutenant had finished admonishing her, did she get carried off back to the rally point.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Putting a new roof over my head was much easier now when I had a second set of helping hands that was perfectly willing to pinch whatever tools I needed from a building contractor's warehouse in the town surrounding the Shihoin Clan country mansion – which was where Kisuke was staying with his best friend. He didn't know why I insisted that he eventually return all the tools when I was done with them. Stealing to survive was the default way of life in Rukongai for those who were poor and since I didn't even have two coins to rub together he thought that I should keep it. I retorted that it was one thing doing it when one had no choice, but I certainly did have a choice.

The new location of the place was five kilometers upstream of the river, on some decent solid high ground just in case of there was flooding in the future, on a hill that was decently forested so that it wouldn't be easy to spot from the ground or the air. It was covered in a large forest of bamboo, which would be very handy as a roughly uniform building material.

It would actually be a house with four walls and a roof this time. The plans I drew up, thanks to the parchment, brush and ink borrowed from Kisuke and a metric ruler of my own make, fascinated the boy and he had watched eagerly as I worked on it. The house would be a basic rectangular shape, eight meters by four by three. It was quite difficult, Technical Drawing hadn't been my best subject in High School, but I knew just building a house by 'eyeing it' would quickly lead to it falling apart. Kisuke helped whenever he visited and he was especially helpful digging the foundations.

It was when I had finally finished the walls and floors after three weeks of hard work (considering I still had to take time to fish and gather food) that Kisuke finally brought his friends with him as well. It was inevitable that they would start to question where he disappeared off to so regularly.

They arrived as I was busy laying out the frames which would eventually support the roof.

Kisuke's voice greeted, "Mel!" I had been aware of their approach of course, there was no mistaking my younger friend's spiritual power, there were two unknown ones with him this time.

I waved at him as he entered the clearing I had made the house in, "Hello Kisuke." Following in his wake was a girl who I estimated matched my own age, she was dark skinned with golden colored eyes set in a pretty heart shaped face, framed by short purple hair. I wondered if it was a dye job or if it actually grew that way. She was dressed as simply as Kisuke, though her yellow frock was longer and reached her knees. Her mouth quirked as she saw me, her eyes twinkled at Kisuke and teasingly elbowed him the ribs, whispering something that made the blond boy blush furiously. Following the girl was another boy; shorter than Kisuke, a stocky build with dark braided hair pulled back into a pony tail. He actually wore black calf-length pants and a shirt. His eyes bugged out somewhat when he saw me, but he practically fainted when the dark skinned girl to his left…

"Ah, good morning Mel, pleased to meet you," she promptly pulled her frock over her head and disrobed completely, chucking it at Kisuke.

"Yoruichi! Don't…" the dark haired boy complained with a long suffering sigh.

"Oh shut it Tessai," Yoruichi waved a hand dismissively. "Kisuke's new friend doesn't care, he doesn't, and I don't, so you shouldn't either."

I grinned at the carefree attitude I was sensing from Yoruichi, and she carried herself so naturally in her birthday suit that I instantly felt that I was looking at a kindred spirit, so to speak. Her endowment was slightly larger than mine, though I was curvier around the hips.

I bowed to her briefly. "It's good to finally meet you, Yoruichi. I hope you'll forgive me if I don't greet you properly. I don't know how to interact with nobility."

The girl laughed. "_Che_, I don't care much about that hoity-toity nonsense, only when I'm at official functions because it's expected of me. Here, I'm Yoruichi Shihoin, end of story. The guy who's head is about to explode is Tessai Tsukabishi."

"Tessai," I greeted him only slightly inclining my head.

He was firmly staring at the ground. "Nice to meet you too, Mel."

"I would invite you in," I jerked a thumb at the incomplete house behind me, "but as you can see, not finished."

Yoruichi walked forward with a lithe grace that led me to suspect she would be good dancer. "Most newcomers in Soul Society just try to find a town or city and turn to crime or if they are lucky find a job somewhere. Some just do nothing and wander the streets, expecting someone else to make their lives better, yet here you are _making_ a place for yourself."

"What's the point of the afterlife where you can live for possibly thousands of years, and you don't _do _anything with that gift?"

Yoruichi folded her arms and nodded in agreement with the sentiment. "I also want to offer my congratulations on your first Hollow purification."

I grinned at Kisuke. I really shouldn't have been surprised that he told that story to his friends once he had decided to introduce me. "I had surprise on my side and I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a Soul Slayer."

"People usually get overcome with fear at the mere sight and feel of a Hollow, even Death god students at the Shino Academy take a while to overcome that fear."

"I'm lucky God saw fit to bless me with power, it would be criminal to not use it in defense of a life."

Yoruichi arched an eyebrow at me and suddenly laughed, giving me a hug. She turned to the shy boy "I see what you like in her, Kisuke. Oi Tessai, lift your head, you're not going to do much good helping our new friend with this roof otherwise."

"Yoruichi, you know how uncomfortable I get when you're like this," Tessai gestured vaguely to her form. "You shouldn't be…"

"Tessai, Tessai," she sighed. "Fine, sit there and be bored while Kisuke and I help." I wondered what his problem was. He wasn't young enough to still be at the 'girls are disgusting' stage. My puzzlement at the behavior was clear on my face and Yoruichi explained. "He thinks me walking around like this is not proper behavior for the future head of the Shihoin Clan, even though there's not a soul for nearly twenty spirit miles in every direction." Yoruichi rubbed her hands together. "Alright Mel, what do we do?"

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With a third pair of hands we finished three quarters of the roof frames on that day, all the while Yoruichi and I chatted up a storm with Kisuke only occasionally contributing, whilst Tessai sulked in front of the firepit occasionally muttering something and then flinging spiritually conjured fire onto the wood, and then extinguishing it by yet another muttered spell that threw water onto it. I was initially fascinated by the display and wondering how I could convince Tessai to teach me the basics of spiritual magic.

Yoruichi and I soon discovered that we had a shared passion for the unarmed martial arts or what she called Hakuda, and soon we were both trading stories and explanations of the various forms of both that style and Ninjitsu. I immediately concluded that Hakuda was a more 'flashy' and elaborate style than Ninjitsu, as the latter heavily favored 'Economy of Movement' and getting very close to your opponent to deliver strikes that naturally flowed from one into the other. Hakuda had some of this, but because it had been a style developed for a Death god who could move with blinding speed, run on air, and hit with extreme force, it meant that it was naturally more elaborate.

Before the three left back to the Shihoin countryside mansion, we even had a bit of a spar. Yoruichi was magnificent; there was no other way to describe it. She moved with flash step that was easily double mine and I had the sense that she was holding back. Every attack I deflected was fluidly turned into another attack that got under my guard, whilst even when I managed to get her off balance, or land a light slap to indicate a strike; she had either recovered or had landed a hit of her own. It really didn't surprise me. Yoruichi had been trained since she could walk with a dedicated sensei, and that pretty much trumped my ninety minutes of Ninjitsu class three times a week

She raised a hand after our third bout to stop me from attacking again. "Interesting style. When you land a hit it's not actually just one strike but three or even four hits in one movement of the arm and leg. Not to mention all of them are attacking vital points, on a human."

"Aha, but a Hollow wouldn't have those," I nodded in understanding.

"Exactly, most have bestial shapes that mean you can only take them down with sheer power; Hakuda is geared towards that if necessary."

My new friends said their goodbyes soon afterward and all three vanished into flash step.

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Of course, besides the daily survival chores and the building of the roof, which could only be done with two people, over the next few weeks I found myself with free time which I spent practicing both Ninjitsu and the Hakuda that Yoruichi showed me. Most of my training was without a partner or opponent limited me to drilling katas, attacks and counters against imaginary targets and roughly hewn wooden dummies of my own make. I had to carefully control my power so as to not reduce the thing to splinters. I couldn't ignore training with weapons though. It hadn't been my favorite thing in the dojo back in the living world, but I did have preferred weapons. So I cut a Bo staff out of a long leftover piece of bamboo from the house's construction and sanded the edges to a smooth finish.

I also set about with further exploration of my new world now aided with flash step, my new staff and a bit of food in a sling. It really helped that I had managed to increase my speed to roughly twenty two meters per second, with the help of a little trick Yoruichi had shown me. By flaring my spiritual power ahead of me to create the equivalent of a wind shield, the air no longer blasted against my body to create the large amounts of drag which had held me back previously. I really looked forward to the future when my control was good enough to create an aerodynamic shield shape akin to a sports car.

I decided to head south and it was after nearly nineteen kilometers when I found the first sign of civilization. The forest had changed to tall sprawling grasslands and I alighted on a hill overlooking a town. It had a circular configuration of ring roads cut further into smaller pie pieces with smaller roads. The buildings were rather eye opening; it felt like I was looking at a small town cut from sixteenth century China, the curved tile roofs, walls and the ornate gates at the either ends of the place. People walked everywhere and I even saw rickshaw carts drawn by extremely fit men, the only thing missing from the picture were horses.

I didn't get closer because I saw that every person was clothed and just casually walking through there was sure to raise a ruckus. I certainly could flash step on the roofs and perhaps steal an outfit of sorts but didn't want to deprive someone of their own clothes. Perhaps the next time Yoruichi visited I could ask her for some unassuming outfit that I could borrow.

I turned around and flash stepped back north until I reached the forest and stopped to eat my midday meal. I was halfway through my nuts, looking wistfully in the direction of the town. I really wished I could just throw all caution and fear to the wind and just casually stroll through the town.

'_Do it._'

I was on my feet in a trice, heart racing. Looking around the area and squinted into the forest. Where had that voice come from?

'_You shouldn't give a damn._ _That anyone would dare to presume to clothe us in their shame and unnaturalness._'

It was a woman's voice, smooth as silk and lilting the words in an accent that was so familiar that its name was on the tip of my tongue, yet I couldn't get it out. The last statement was laced with a stern anger. Again, I couldn't determine the source of the voice. It always seemed to be coming from behind me, as if someone was standing over my shoulder and whispering in my ear, but whenever I turned around, no one was there.

"What the fuck?" I commented to the air around me. Was there some invisible person around here? Looking at the grass I saw no unnatural depressions that feet would make, but then the person could just be standing on air just above the level of the grass. If I'd had some soft sand in large quantity I could…

'_Don't waste your time. You can't find me that way._'

Okay, my visitor can read my thoughts and I doubted I was going nuts and suddenly developing a split personality. I had no problems with the recent relative solitude of my existence. I picked up my stuff and decided to go home to think. I made a slight mistake on the route back that led me to stumble upon a dirt road that snaked further east through the forest. I gathered that it was used to link the town I had seen to other towns towards the north.

After barely five minutes of flash stepping on the tree tops along it, I spied what could only be trouble.

Six men were crouched in hidden positions behind bushes. Their rough disposition, body language, clothes, and the katana's sheathed across their backs told me they were yet another throwback to the past…Highwaymen. Two heavy carriages approached slowly in the distance, drawn by a pair of mules each, being directed by a driver and someone holding a gleaming spear to provide security.

Two against six, and once those guys got inside the range of those spears, it was all over.

'_Get rid of them.'_

I almost fell out of the tree as my concentration was disturbed by the lilted voice.

' _What?_' I hesitantly thought back.

'_You heard me. Where do you think those supplies are going?_'

'_The town.'_

'_Exactly. I can't tolerate this crime about to take place in your home and neither do you._'

'_My home is still a ways away._' I can't believe that I was talking to myself.

'_Semantics and technicality, this forest, that town, Soul Society is now our home. Remember, all that is required for evil to flourish is for good men or women in this case, to do nothing._'

'_They've got swords that can cut through my bamboo staff with a solid hit_.'

'_Can they?_' the question had an enigmatic, amused tone. _'In any case, I suggest attacking when they attack the caravan, maximizing your surprise and liberal use of flash step."_

There were roughly a hundred meters to go before I judged the ambush would be sprung on the caravan.

'_Okay, just…who are you?'_

'_You must earn that knowledge.'_

'_Earn? I'm afraid I'm going nuts here talking to a 'distinct' voice in my head and…'_

'_You're not going crazy, Melanie.'_

'_Psych patients at nuthouses probably hear that all the time from their hallucinations.'_

'_Think of me as your guardian angel if it would make you feel better.'_

'_Guardian angel?'_

'_Hey, you've got the strength to smash through rock and tree, you've seen spiritual energy manipulated into spells, and now you're skeptical of a guardian angel?'_

'_We'll talk later, the caravan is almost right on top of those guys…'_

I tensed and flash stepped away from the impending battle, hiding my sling bag behind a tree, before returning to my previous perch. I saw the glint of steel as the highwaymen drew their swords. There was a distinct bird whistle and all six men charged out of their hiding spots, yelling in a war cry to each other and to frighten their targets. I picked my own target and flash stepped.

I alighted right behind a highwayman about to slash one of the mules with his katana. My staff sang through the air and slammed right into the man's temple, before I flash stepped again and hit another through the sternum with enough force to send him flying and crashing into a tree. I came to a stop nearly thirty meters away in the air and evaluated the effect I'd had.

The two downed robbers had clearly thrown everything into confusion; even the men in the caravan had seemingly stopped fighting and were looking around frantically.

'_Keep them guessing!_'

I took the voice's advice and chose my target before world blurred around me again. My staff rapped another robber across the back of the knees with such force that he promptly did a clumsy backward somersault and went down screaming. I halted myself in the air again on the other side of the road.

One of the three remaining highwaymen decided that it was better to run away at this point. I flash stepped right in front of him and used my staff to trip him up, using his own momentum to send him crashing to the hard gravel road and a strike to the back of the head sent him into the land of nod. I vanished from my enemy's sight again, but passed right by another robber, intending to clobber him in the stomach and finishing him off with a blow to the back of the head.

This guy had to have had some modicum of power, because he just barely managed to bring his katana into a parry. My staff clashed directly with the sharp edge of the sword, and the two competing forces should've cleaved any normal piece of bamboo clean in two. Instead, the ringing sound of steel meeting steel resounded throughout the area. My flash step carried me away and I stopped fifty meters down the road and examined my staff in astonishment.

Not a scratch. It still looked like a fibrous natural piece of bamboo, but then I finally noticed the difference in weight.

'_No time for that. Keep going!_'

I turned around and saw that the two spearmen guarding the caravan were finally doing something useful and attacking the remaining robbers. This was a much more even contest though it was immediately clear that the spearmen weren't up to the skill of their opponents. I focused again on the robber that had deflected my attack and flash stepped.

The man's sword was right at that moment busy parrying a spear, and my strikes hit him first across the left knee and then a relatively light tap on the back of the head to ensure unconsciousness. I kicked myself for my stupidity the moment after I had done it. I might be merciful in leaving the highwaymen with wounds which would take months to come back from, but the spearmen had no such compunctions. The guy in question yelled in triumph and promptly stuck the blade through the robber's chest.

The last highwayman fled the moment he saw his comrade die, but the second spearman promptly palmed his weapon and threw it rather impressively to embed it in the fleeing robber's back. I shook my head from my new perch up a tree some hundred meters down the road. It was when the other spearman hopped down from the carriage clearly intent on permanently finishing off the other robber I had downed that once again that strange feeling overcame me. As if I wasn't the one making the decision, yet it was me. Is this what schizophrenics felt like?

I vanished into flash step, and as if I had known all along what the extra weight of my staff meant, I pulled on the staff two ridges from one end and it split open, allowing me to unsheathe the silvery chrome blade of a sword perfectly hidden within. It near melodiously, beautifully sang through the air and cleaved the spearblade in two. I barely flickered into existence as I changed direction and plucked the spear still embedded in the other highwayman's back and came to a stop ten meters away, but this time finally allowed the startled spearman to see me.

I didn't know how I looked to him, with my back turned to him and long hair reaching down to my calves but I could imagine the sight of me with a gleaming long blade in my right hand, and a spear and three-quarters of a Bo staff in my left hand made it pretty clear that I was the one who had given them a hand.

"You've killed two, isn't that enough?" Out of the corner of my eye I saw he was either entranced by me or stupefied into being unable to respond. I turned my body to face him, relieving the kink in my neck. The second spearman and the two drivers were now there as well and promptly mirrored each other's reaction. "Good grief, you'd think they'd never seen a woman before."

The voice in my head laughed mischievously. '_Oh, you should get used to this._'

'_What?_'

'_I'll explain later. First deal with them._'

"Oi, idiots!" I snapped my fingers in front of their faces and they blinked stupidly before a modicum of intelligence crept back into their features.

"W-w-what?" the driver was a skinny young man who looked like he was about to wet himself, as was the others.

The voice advised, '_Easy on the spiritual pressure, Melanie_.'

I sighed realizing that I had amped myself up a bit during the events, and quickly lowered my output.

"Now, that better?" The four men nodded though I could still see there was not a lot of thinking happening in their heads. "Good. Tie the survivors up, take them with you to town, let'em heal." I casually rested my sword on my shoulder, emphasizing that I was the one in charge here. "Take the two dead ones as well, bury them properly."

The older of the spearmen stuttered out, "Uh…Mistress…why should…"

"You've killed two, you've made your point, but it doesn't help if you kill their buddies so they can't take word back to whoever pulls their strings."

"That's what we want to avoid," said the other driver, wringing his hands. "Our town would be under siege from the criminal gangs if they knew _we_ were effectively opposing them, which is what they will assume. I will admit Mistress that you are certainly capable but you can't be everywhere and can be outnumbered. When these robbers just don't come back it'll be assumed they struck out on their own, or landed a good score somewhere, or perhaps were taken out by the Shihoin Clan."

The spearman with the busted weapon mused, "It _is_ rather stupidly brazen for them to attack one of the roads leading from Shihoin Town. I wonder what they were thinking."

I sighed again at another example of how the afterlife was just as patently unfair as life had been. I looked at the unconscious forms of the robbers and had to remind myself that there was no real 'police force' or 'rule of law' in Rukongai beyond the 'law of the jungle'. I was guilty of thinking that there was a true country and all that it implied around me.

'_Protecting people is rarely so black and white, Melanie._' The voice intruded into my thoughts. '_Even in your old home country, the police would often hunt down murderers and hijackers, and cook the books that they had resisted arrest rather than put them in an over-clogged justice system that would have those same men out on the streets within a week awaiting a trial that would take another year._'

'_I know that_,' I groused. I chucked the spear back at its owner who caught it deftly and set about the grim task with little regret or fanfare. I sheathed my own blade so that it formed a Bo staff again and abruptly realized…

'_Ha ha, took you long enough!_'

'_You're my Soul Slayer!_'

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The next morning I was sitting in front of the fire pit and watched my unassuming Soul Slayer lay on the log next to me. I had finally remembered what type of weapon it was; a Shikomizue, which literally translated to 'prepared cane', but this one, disguised a Renaissance Rapier or Side-Sword within itself. Whenever I completely unsheathed it, the bamboo hilt would vanish and I was left with a woven red hilt and rounded pommel, protected by a crossguard in the shape of the number eight. The blade had a length of roughly ninety centimeters, double-edged and tapered, I could cut and thrust equally well with such a sword. Resheathing it instantly brought its disguise back and I was left a Bo staff made of bamboo.

'_Why do I have you so soon? I thought Death gods get them only after years of training, I mean Yoruichi doesn't even have one…_'

'_Just because it's not apparent doesn't mean her blade is not there_,' the soul blade explained. _'We are a reflection of our wielder and their power and manifest at your will. The blade comes when someone of power has need of it, and you Melanie, with your luck ran into a rather powerful Hollow. That was the first impetus to my creation; the second was your desire to affect the world around you for the better, and finally your very instinct for survival. Your training and discipline that you carried over from the living world and that which you picked up here helped as well._'

'_Of course, necessity was part of it too_,' I nodded in understanding.

'_Exactly.'_

'_So what do I call you?'_

'_Ah, that's a problem. If I say my name is….then you can't hear me.'_

'_Why can't I hear your name?'_

'_Because it's within your soul, and it's _you _who must find it.'_

'_That sucks, I don't want to call you something so impersonal like 'soul sword'…or Shikomizue.'_

'_I'm touched that you feel that way, but it can't be helped and I recommend against using a name of your own devising. It will only impede your search for my true name.'_

'_And how do I find your name?'_

'_I can only tell you that you must gain proficiency over all that is within my power.'_

'_And what is within your power?'_

'_You will know when you see or feel it, you've already just barely touched upon one of my powers yesterday.'_

I huffed in frustration but understood that any skill or power was something earned, a price had to be paid for it, whether it was training, study, practice or the gaining of knowledge. There had to be a balance on the scale.

I cursed as my mind saw fit to give me a snapshot of the caravan guard killing the highwaymen and the effort to bury the bodies – _that_ I had at least been able to convince them to do. I remembered killing my first antelope, it had left me feeling what was called 'buck fever', and usually manifested in some form of manic behavior as you came down from the adrenaline high, in my case, my left arm had shook uncontrollably for a few minutes. Yesterday I had been indirectly responsible for six deaths, and there was nothing like 'buck fever', just numbness and a slight case of nausea as the acrid copper stench of blood had reached my nose. Shouldn't I be feeling horrible? And did the fact that I didn't feel that way, make me horrible?

'_Melanie, if you had not intervened, what would have happened?_'

'_I know,_' I nodded. '_I just have to get used to the idea…but…_'

'_Remember this rule; kill always seeing the individual trees for the forest its part of. If one tree gets a disease or a parasite, it must be cut down and burned to preserve the entire forest. As humans are intelligent this adds a bit of complexity to the equation though, the four surviving highwaymen, the village people clearly pointed out why they had to die…doing so prevented a far greater evil and suffering._'

I mentally nodded in understanding, but my attention was drawn at that point to three approaching power concentrations. Yoruichi, Kisuke and Tessai. They emerged from the forest and greeted me in their unique ways as usual; Kisuke with his shy wave and blush, whilst Tessai gave a gruff hello and nod.

"I've got a suggestion today," Yoruichi proclaimed as she broke from our hug. I noticed she was wearing a halfway decent travelling robe today "I've talked it over with my Uncle and he's agreed, how about you stay for a visit at the mansion?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he was rather amazed at you surviving and living out here so successfully and wants to meet you, but I also want to show you the civilized portions of Soul Society."

"Very well, I accept…" I quickly lost my smile. "But I'd have to wear clothes."

"So? What's so bad about that?" Tessai questioned.

'_Uh…sword?_'

'_No.'_

'_But…there's has to be some middle ground…'_

'_Hmmm…let me think…that should work…'_

I blinked as Yoruichi snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Melanie, hellooo, anybody in there?"

"Sorry, it's just that…let me explain," I walked over to where my Shikomizue was laying and picked it up.

Yoruichi frowned, "How's a piece of bamboo gonna help explain?" I smirked briefly before unsheathing my new Rapier in one fluid movement, but keeping it lowered and pointed to the ground. Tessai gasped and Kisuke's eyes widened briefly. Yoruichi smirked and clapped briefly, "Very nice. Interesting style of blade that and it even disguises itself. I had wondered how long it would take for you manifest a Soul Slayer and such an interesting one as well. I didn't even sense it until you drew."

"That makes sense actually, it defeats the purpose of a Shikomizue if you can tell there's a deadly weapon inside. But anyway, my Soul Slayer's spirit is the problem, she says that we are not shameful to look upon, we are God's creation and I agree with that."

"But you can't walk around Shihoin Town never mind the mansion like that…not even Yoruichi does that…" Tessai objected.

"Yes, yes, I know Tessai," I nodded, sheathing the sword again and sealing it into its staff form. "But my sword has a plan…" I held the staff perpendicular to the earth and closed my eyes. My sword actively guided my power, it felt very weird …I was doing it, yet not…and I suddenly felt my mane of hair swirling in an unseen wind, accompanied with a slight tingly sensation all over my skin. I opened my eyes and looked down, my hair had come alive, snaking itself all over my body before solidifying, yet I couldn't feel it on me…

At first I thought that I was wearing the popular conception of a ninja's clothes, it was all black, but it looked and felt like it was actually a bodysuit of the shiniest thick leather I had ever seen that conformed to every curve I had, but still left my back, arms, shoulders and feet bare. There were also two small catches on my back where I could now carry my Shikomizue with no problems.

Kisuke grinned, "Now that's not something you see every day."

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The four of us were soon flash stepping on a steady northward course through the forest with Yoruichi in the lead. After barely six minutes we had passed the furthest edge of my explorations and I was moving into the unknown. It was a heady, exciting feeling, something I imagined the great explorers such as Magellan must have felt like. It was another five minutes before we crossed what was the northern border of the great forest that had been my home thus far in Soul Society. The territory here was hillier with even a couple of towering mountains speckled across the suddenly open landscape.

Yoruichi motioned upwards to me and our flash steps carried us upward into the air until we finally alighted on top of a flat top mountain. All of us were breathing a bit heavier as I looked down to where she pointed.

"Welcome to Shihoin Town."

I gasped, "Beautiful."

In the centre, a raised plateau easily with a couple of hectares of space on it, beautiful trees some of which were covered in colorful blossoms adorned it, with numerous multi story buildings in old Japanese style that rose out of the greenery. Only one steep flight of steps allowed access to the plateau, which itself was further surrounded by high buttressed walls with a gate facing south that allowed entry from ground level. Around this stretching for less than a kilometer in every direction were streets, shops, houses and larger buildings in a circular arrangement.

"Let's go."

It wasn't two minutes later that we were standing in front of a colorful gate leading into the Shihoin compound. Two robed guards stood at attention on either side of the massive doors, armed with tall steel pikes. They instantly crossed their weapons when we appeared out of flash step in front of them. Yoruichi made some sort of hand signal that was too fast to see and both men instantly stiffened and pulled their weapons out of the way before bowing deeply.

"Princess Yoruichi, welcome."

My eyebrows shot into the sky at hearing that title.

"We wish you to remember our new friend," Yoruichi gestured to me. "Her name is Melanie and she has provisional entrance to the grounds with escort."

"Understood Princess," both guards chorused. The large doors creaked open heavily allowing me to glimpse their impressive thickness and that they were interlaced and reinforced with metal. It would take a tank or heavy explosives to breach, a formidable defense in an afterlife where the technology level was the Earth equivalent of seventeenth century at best.

We entered and began to climb the steps, I sped up slightly to catch up with Yoruichi, "You're the freaking Princess?"

"We are," she sighed in a manner that showed she had not looked forward to day when I would find out. She also spoke in the old Royal tradition where it was assumed that a member of the nobility spoke not only for themselves but for all those ancestors who had come before them.

"Princess Yoruichi," It had a nice ring to it, "never had a friend with that title before."

A small relieved smile graced her features, "We're sorry for speaking like this, but there are many ears and eyes watching that is not plainly seen."

I took that in and tried to sense for spiritual pressure around me. Initially there was nothing, besides the four of us, but then I caught a flicker, the equivalent of tiny spark dashing past us with an amazing speed that made me envious. So fast and silent was it that there wasn't even a hint of its passing.

'_Now that is impressive_,' my sword commented. '_I wouldn't be surprised if they had _wanted_ you to notice that one._'

"Guards?"

"In a way," Yoruichi nodded.

We climbed the final step and emerged onto the grounds proper. I considered my forest home to be a beautiful natural place where I could spend the afterlife, but this was like a little slice of more orderly man-made heaven, somewhere I would imagine anyone raised in the concrete jungles of Tokyo would consider heaven. Peach blossom trees, lotus flowers, beautiful gardens surrounding koi ponds with dark wooden bridges over them, was a vision that seared into my eyes and memory. I wished I had a camera.

"Kisuke, would you please show Melanie to her rooms, we must go speak to our Uncle."

"Yes, Princess."

She walked off towards one of the taller tower buildings, giving a graceful wave of her hand.

"This way, Mel," Kisuke gestured towards the west end of the compound. We arrived at a single floor rectangular building, which had a large courtyard open to the sky within. As we passed the various shoji paper lined walls, on the interior of the building he gestured to the eastern end. "These are my rooms, Tessai lives in the north section, and your rooms…"

"West end?"

He nodded, sliding open the door and revealing the minimalist interior of my new abode. A single futon mattress with one pillow, a very low table which I winced at seeing (you can only sit in front of it in the seiza position, something that was murder on western knees), and another slightly higher table meant to write on. The walls were decorated with calligraphy scrolls written in kanji characters that I somehow could read with no problems. I knew my eyes were seeing a 'foreign' language but the meaning was just somehow being zoomed into my brain. Perhaps there was some truth to the biblical concept of a 'high' language that all understood and spoke in heaven. The shoji walls on the other side of the room would also give a spectacular view if opened. I had no shoes but my dusty bare feet would ruin the pristinely polished floors, so I didn't dare walk in.

Kisuke spotted my problem, "Aaaa, there is a water source in the courtyard, and I'll show you the baths later."

"Perhaps we can find you some shoes," Tessai stated. "If you're going to meet the current Head of the Shihoin family in the manor, you'll track all sorts of dirt in with your feet."

"I should be able to solve this problem," I mused thoughtfully before remembering how my sword had manipulated my power, and focusing it on my feet. A moment later I regarded my feet encased in leather tabi shoes.

"Be careful, Mel-chan, Prince Nobuo Shihoin will mistake you for one of his soldiers," Kisuke laughed.

"Oh?"

"You'll find out eventually if you stay here longer, but the Head of the Shihoin family traditionally inherits the command of Soul Society's Special Forces," Tessai informed her. "Their uniform is almost like your magical clothes, only less form fitting and covers more skin."

"Well, I could always change it." _'Sword?'_

A few moments later the bodysuit and tabi shoes were a pure white.

Tessai frowned, "Better, but can't you change it into a kimono?"

I shook my head, "no, nothing that truly hides my form."

We were interrupted at that point by a person appearing out of flash step right in front of us and immediately bowing. It was a short rather beautiful woman who looked to be in that golden mean period of her thirties, but since this was the afterlife, she could very well have been centuries in age. She was dressed in a white floral patterned kimono with wooden clog sandals for shoes. I inwardly winced at the thought of having to flash step or even walk with such things on my feet.

Kisuke introduced the new arrival, "Melanie, this is Airi, she takes care of us and sees to any needs or problems we have, which now also includes you."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mistress," Airi bowed again.

"The pleasure is mine," I returned the bow and she blushed for some odd reason at the action.

"You'll have to forgive Mel-chan, Airi," Tessai laughed. "She's not versed in the social norms of Soul Society yet."

"You matched her bow," Kisuke explained to me at my confused expression. "Airi is a household servant and you are a guest of the Princess, your bow to her must be shallower."

"Oh, perhaps if you have the time then you can teach me, Airi." I had a feeling I'd need it for the future.

"I would be honored, Mistress. But my immediate purpose is to bring a message from the Prince. He wishes to meet you in the afternoon."

I felt my stomach churn a bit in nervousness.

Kisuke smiled encouragingly, "Relax Mel-chan, it's just a quick meeting, he just wants to get a measure of you, he's a very busy man as you can imagine."

"I will escort you there when the time comes, Mistress."

"Thank you, Airi."

She bowed and vanished with a blur.

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The upper floors of largest building within the Shihoin compound had a distinct air of a museum. Polished hardwood floors that I could almost see my own reflection in, walls with only calligraphy for decoration, sliding shoji walls that ensured a room's visual privacy had elaborate artistic renderings on them of various dramatic scenes; battles, dragons, meetings and celebrations. I had been given a pair of white socks to wear so that I didn't mar the exquisitely polished floor, and I had to leave my Soul Slayer with Kisuke since there was no way anyone armed was allowed within this house bar the Prince and his personal bodyguards.

I was escorted by Airi though the maze-like corridors and wondered how on earth they knew which room was which. There were no numbers or letters or words near any of the rooms we passed. I supposed it was a defense against infiltration; someone breaking in who hadn't essentially been raised in the compound or trained here would quickly get lost and have no idea where anyone of import slept or lived.

All I knew we were somewhere on the fifth floor out of the eight this building consisted of, Airi had stopped and knelt in front of a shoji wall and prompted me to do the same next to her.

"Prince Shihoin, your humble servant Airi has completed her task," she declared to the room beyond.

"We thank you," a deep voice responded.

Airi took that as her cue and slid open the wall to reveal the room. It was the typical minimalist style but was slightly more cluttered, with piles of various scrolls and kneeling behind a low table was Nobuo Shihoin himself. He looked visibly as if he was in his fifties, which probably translated to the fact that he was a thousand years old. He was dark skinned like his niece but had penetrating sapphire blue eyes framed with long purple hair held together with an ornate silver hair piece. The Prince had a rather scrawny build judging by the fitting ninja style uniform of the Special Forces he was wearing, but my sense of the power he radiated just by being at rest left me rather intimidated.

Airi bowed deeply to the Prince before easily standing and walking off gracefully.

"Melanie Harrold," he said with a crisp neutral tone. I felt as if I was being x-rayed by those blue eyes, but I remembered Airi's instructions. I bowed once with my head almost touching the floor, hands braced flat in front of me.

"Prince Shihoin, I am honored by your house's generosity."

He barely inclined his head in acknowledgement of my thanks. "We have learned of your feat yesterday to prevent Shihoin trade goods from falling into the hands of criminals. Why did you do this?"

I was surprised twofold, that word had reaching him so quickly and that he had to ask at all. It took me a while to get my thoughts in order. "I came from a country in the living world where crime was something that touched everyone. There I had little to no power to do anything about it beyond the limits of self-defense. Here in Rukongai that is very different. I had the power and skill to stop it, and chose to do it."

"What is a crime, Harrold-chan?" the Prince asked with a knowing air.

I frowned for a moment, "In the absence of any commonly accepted rule of law that depends on the individual, Prince Shihoin."

"Did you happen to get a close look at the blades those highwaymen were using?"

"Uh, no…Prince." I could feel my cheeks heating up.

"They were rather good blades for common criminal scum. Completely unmarked by any blacksmith."

I wasn't sure what the Prince was trying to do, but I clearly had no choice but to play along. Unmarked katanas? Could that have the same significance as a gun with no serial numbers or identifying marks? It meant that the weapons were purposefully meant to be untraceable in any way, which was clearly suspicious. I also knew that proper katanas were practically works of art and it took months for a single blacksmith to make one. There was no way that any smith would leave it unmarked, unless he or she _wanted_ to remain anonymous.

"They weren't just criminals then."

"Oh they probably _were_, but they were given untraceable weapons, a purpose and were probably promised a percentage of the loot."

"They were specifically targeting _Shihoin Clan_ trade goods?"

"Well done, Harrold-chan," the Prince smiled briefly. "This wasn't a crime in the sense of one person or a group simply stealing for profit. It was a supply raid with a larger goal, one of many in the recent months targeting Shihoin Clan production."

"Why? Is someone trying to…"

The Prince simply smiled again, and rang a small bell that was on his table. "Thank you, Harrold-chan. Enjoy your stay."

Airi blurred into existence next to me and bowed to the Prince. My brain was whirling in confusion on the question of _why_ he had told me all this, besides the fact that I had saved the caravan shipment, but I managed to bow as well, before Airi slid the shoji wall closed and escorted me back to my quarters.

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_A/N: Inspiration for Mel's magical outfit comes from Bayonetta. I've got her future Shikai (initial release) and Bankai (final release) powers worked out, but don't expect to see them in this first story arc, since Bankai alone takes 10 years of dedicated training after attaining Shikai (this can easily take decades depending on the Shinigami and his circumstances/battle experience/skill). I'm still of two minds regarding adding Japanese honorifics and other terms, and I'm still experimenting with them so excuse me if I make any mistakes in that dept. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

I would remember my first stay at Shihoin country manor for many reasons. I had at first thought that death, setting foot in the afterlife and my idyllic forest home was the beginning. As it turned out that was but the parting of the doors, my time at the manor was me stepping through them at last. Life began way too early for my liking at the mansion; the sun had not even risen yet and would not for another hour before a deep ominous bell would resound throughout the grounds. Everyone would get up and breakfast would be prepared by servants whilst the family, guests, guards and everyone else would head to the baths. Whilst these were segregated by gender, it was otherwise communal and the procedure was very different to what I was used to. I had never liked baths: whilst it was relaxing it always ended with you being immersed in your own dirty water at some point. So I always showered. In Soul Society, bathing began by sitting down on a small wooden chair with a channel running underneath, where you used oils and soap to wash and rinse yourself completely. Only after you were clean did you enter a large pool-like bath which was apparently heated with magic to a relaxing forty or fifty odd degrees. Bathing was something that was also class segregated to a degree; there were specific times for certain bathers to use the facilities. Since I was a guest of Yoruichi I was allowed to bathe with all the women of the family, but she firmly kept me away from them in the bath.

"Their conversations would bore you to tears, Mel-chan," Yoruichi smirked wickedly. "'Oooh, did you see how that tea ceremony was performed? Horrid.' 'Do you think this floral pattern on my kimono makes me look too fat?''Have you seen the new Bunraku theatre performance?'" She had said this without even lowering her voice, and I did see a few glares shot the Princess' way, but the older women didn't even react, so they were probably well used to Yoruichi's disdain for the traditional pastimes women occupied themselves with. This only enhanced my opinion that she and I were cut from the same cloth.

After bathing and breakfast, true to my request, Airi would arrive to teach me Soul Society etiquette, customs and history, for three whole hours. Eating, proper bowing, paying, using chopsticks, visiting someone's house, using proper honorifics, weddings, funerals, calligraphy writing and giving gifts on special days were all taught to me in excruciating detail. The history was a fascinating subject for me and was really all that got me through the tediousness of the lessons in general.

After my brain felt like a sponge with too much water in it, I was fetched by Tessai and Kisuke where we would take the daily Hakuda lesson and surprise, surprise, Airi taught this as well. It turned out this modest servant woman who looked like she couldn't hurt a fly had been in the Special Forces for a good six centuries before she was given the honor to retire and had promptly chosen to continue serving the Shihoin family. This coincided with Yoruichi's birth and I suspected that Airi was actually just there to train and groom the Princess for her future role.

Yet another three hours after that I had concluded that Airi was one hundred percent badass. She was dressed in an informal outfit, floppy pink trousers and sleeveless blouse with ornate flowers stitched everywhere and still wearing those damned clog shoes and then proceeded to effortlessly kick all our asses into the ground. "A warrior must never lose his or her humility," she had said softly. Only afterward did she begin 'instruction'. She started me by asking to demonstrate what basics I knew, which I did, and she declared, "Deplorable, but promising."

I left Hakuda training each day feeling like I had bruises on my bruises, and it took all my self-discipline not to throw my newly taught etiquette out the window by simply gobbling up my lunch.

I tagged along with Tessai and Kisuke in the afternoons when I had asked for magic practice. Spiritual magic turned out to be very interesting in some respects and utterly baffling or even ridiculous in others. In its basic essence (at least to my mind) it was taking spiritual energy and changing it into another form of energy before releasing it against your target. There were three main types of magic classed according to their primary function; Destruction, Binding and Healing. These were extremely broad categories though, as for some reason they counted communication, scanning and shielding spells among the Binding Arts. I didn't tell Tessai or his Magic Sensei that in the privacy of my mind I was categorizing them in a much more logical manner.

Another way magic was graded was in terms of difficulty and power. On a scale from one to ninety-nine, one being the easiest to achieve and requiring little power to the other end of the spectrum which required not only tons of power, but extreme skill and even experience before the magic user could hope to perform the spell without blowing herself up. There was also the caveat that a powerful enough magic user could take a simple spell and achieve effects that rival higher level spells.

A ridiculous aspect of magic I found to be the incantations. I really wondered who in their deranged mind had come up with them. The first spell I ever learned was called _Binding 1: Restrain_. As its name implied it caused your target's arms to lock themselves behind them much in the way a straight jacket did, but also forced them to kneel. The incantation was this long phrase of utter nonsense. Tessai admitted that at the first level a spell didn't really need it and that visualization, intent and will was enough, but at the higher levels the incantation was necessary to make the spell work properly or it would be too weak or limited in its effect.

This made me wonder why? Was the spell incantation there for psychosomatic or even emotive reasons? Did it impart some sort of mindset that was necessary for the high level spells to function? I was hesitant to ask these questions of either my friends or the sensei, as I didn't want their 'belief' that an incantation was necessary to take root within my mind. Science was very iffy when it came to the human machine, and I resolved to experiment carefully with incantation. I soon learned that there was a technique for what the sensei called '_Incantation Abandonment_', but that it was a skill learned through long experience with a spell. I also resolved that I would never learn a higher level spell until I could throw the previous level about without an incantation and at high efficiency and strength.

The second spell I learned in that first week was _Destruction 1: Thrust_, or as I liked to call it, _Force Push_. Again as its name indicated it pushed the target away from the caster. The first thing that crossed my mind when I had successfully pushed a small stone in front of me about ten meters by just pointing my forefinger at it was why it was considered an insignificant spell. I saw that Tessai or Kisuke looked simply bored as they flicked pebbles, only occasionally mumbling the spell under their breath. Didn't they know the potential of this? I was taking spiritual energy and turning it into kinetic energy and any grade eight Physics student could tell you what happened when you gave an object a lot of kinetic energy.

I only studied magic for an hour in the afternoons, this was to allow Tessai and Kisuke to work on the more advanced spells with the sensei. I was a guest therefore was actually under no obligation to train at all, but seeing my only friends in the afterlife learn this stuff was the only motivation I really needed, not to mention squandering a gift I had been given was definitely not on my to-do list. So I watched as they worked on the spells such as _Destruction 11: Bound Lightning_ and _Binding 9: Disintegrating Circle_. Tessai was clearly more skilled in magic than Kisuke and even the sensei was looking impressed at the power Tessai was capable in putting into _Bound Lightning_ at his age.

In the late afternoon we would always reunite with Yoruichi and Airi, and move onto training with Soul Slayers. Kisuke and Tessai didn't yet have one, and had to settle for standard katana. As my own sword had indicated, Yoruichi did have one, a Wakizashi Soul Slayer whose name she didn't know yet. Airi at first didn't know what to make of my Soul Slayer wondering why I was bringing a bamboo staff to a sword training session, until I revealed it.

"Interesting dichotomy, a Western sword hidden in a Shikomizue," Airi looked at it thoughtfully. "It will be much more dangerous and difficult for you to train, Melanie-sama. Do you know why?"

I thought for a moment. "My blade can cut both ways."

"Yes, a common feature amongst most western blades. If your opponent overpowers you in a blade lock, not only does his blade cut you, your own blade does as well. There is also not enough hilt to support both hands. Therefore your right arm must be extremely powerful to compensate. Also if your right arm is wounded then your left must be able to take over with no difference in coordination and ability. However, if you can master the blade and overcome all those hurdles, your speed, strike frequency and the variety of attack angles you can deliver will be very difficult to stop."

"Perhaps in time, I can try to introduce you to Sasakibe Chojiro," Yoruichi suggested. "He's the First Division's Vice-Captain and his sword's release form is also a rapier, though its blade is narrower. He could teach you the specific forms for it."

Sword training was quite formalized and it showed the importance that was ascribed to Soul Slayers. Combat with it was considered one of the four main Death God arts; Zanjutusu. This somewhat conflicted with my prior training in the living world. Ninjitsu stated that fighting hand to hand was the base form of all martial activity, adding a weapon, be it a sword, staff, flail, and shuriken, was just another extension of your body and used the same fighting forms as unarmed combat. A weapon enhanced _you_; it wasn't the be all and end all of a fight.

Of course, we didn't actually train with our actual Soul Slayers, sparring, drills, and forms were done with wooden swords and I had to fight one handed with my wooden Kendo sword to simulate my Rapier. I was soon training with a wooden Rapier replica and it was bloody tough. Airi had me do one hundred repetitions of each drill with my right hand, then another hundred with the sword in my left hand. By the time Zanjutsu had finished, I could barely raise my arms, though my stamina did get somewhat better by the third week.

Later afternoon and evenings were times when we could eat, relax and even play games. Tessai and Kisuke introduced me to a board game called 'Go'. Two players would each take turns placing black and white marble stones on a nineteen by nineteen block grid. Once placed on the board the stones couldn't be moved anywhere, unless they were surrounded or captured by your opponent's stones. The objective was to surround a larger piece of the board than your opponent. Placing stones close together helped them support each other and avoid capture; groups of stones had to have two open points to be 'alive.' On the other hand, placing stones far apart created influence across more of the board. Part of the strategic difficulty of the game stemmed from finding a balance between such conflicting interests. Players strove to serve both defensive and offensive purposes and choose between tactical urgency and strategic plans. It really made western chess look easy in comparison. The sheer amount of attack and defense options available to a player was huge. It gave me a head ache, but I immediately saw its value, Kisuke was clearly the best at it, and sometimes effortlessly beat Tessai and Yoruichi. I fared little better, but this was obviously because of my beginner status.

Kisuke and I would spend a lot of evenings staring at each other over a Go board, with him teaching me the game, while I tried my best to beat him. Each night I would be so tired that I fell into a deep sleep the instant my head hit the pillow, and for three weeks this was my daily routine at the manor. It was so easy and tempting to just stay in this little piece of heaven, but I eventually began to miss the freedom of staying in a place that was really my own, where I lived by my own time out in the natural world.

I had resolved to tell Yoruichi the next day of my intention to return and finish my house, but as my mom used to say, we plan and God laughs at us in amusement.

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I don't know what it was that awoke me. The darkness and moonlight told me it was probably a few hours before that damned bell would go off. A small sliver of light pierced the room as the west facing shoji wall was pushed open barely an inch, a hollowed rod moved in. My mind screamed at me that it was a blow dart and its aim…move…move…_move_!

The hollow sound from a rush of air being blasted through the rod reached my ear and I knew it was too late, but reacting just as quickly my long hair came alive from a part of me that I used to control the formation of my magical clothes. My hair reshaped into a thick black ivory-like shield and the dart which would've pierced my leg bounced off it. My left hand suddenly held my Shikomizue and pushing my power through it while thrusting in the direction of the western wall I bellowed simply "PUSH!"

The entire action had been instinct, but the results were spectacular.

A wave of invisible kinetic energy smashed through the shoji wall, a roof support and part of that same roof. It was as if a truck had suddenly materialized and crashed through at frightening speed. The sound of the crash was deafening. Adrenaline flood into me as I surged to my feet and watched the debris continue into the air and finally over the town on the momentum imparted to them. Among it, silhouetted by the moonlight was a flailing dark figure of a person in a Special Forces uniform.

My assailant struggled to stop himself by gathering spirit particles under his feet. I knew I couldn't let my element of surprise go and give him the initiative, and then I would be dead as I was under no illusions who would win. I flung another wave of kinetic energy at him before drawing my rapier and flash stepping with as much speed as I could muster, intending to slash him across the stomach. He barely managed to fend off my blade with his own Wakizashi at the last moment, but still received a deep cut across his off-hand arm. It was not my only attack though as my Shikomizue attacked the back of his head, landing a good hit that sent the man spinning.

My rapier swung back and again the man was caught off guard with the speed and the attack's angle. It allowed me to score a slash across his chest this time that sent blood flying into the air.

It was at that moment that I felt spiritual signatures flare up all around me, the only reason I didn't hit them with a kinetic wave was the fact that two of them were Kisuke and Tessai. They blurred into existence flanking me with drawn katana's whilst other Special Forces appeared out of flash step to surround my assailant with drawn wakizashi.

"Mel-chan!" Kisuke shouted. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, thanks for coming," I didn't take my eyes off the now recovered assailant who was simply staring at me, Kisuke and Tessai, not caring that he was practically surrounded by dozens of Special Forces. I tensed myself for an attack but was astonished when suddenly the guy slumped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, his spiritual power winked out and the body began to fall to the ground.

I was astonished that the Special Forces let it happen, but soon understood when before the body of my would-be assassin could reach the ground, it exploded in a burst of flame that lit up the night, leaving only smoke and ash that flittered in the wind.

I looked grimly at Kisuke. "What the fuck?"

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I was dressed in my white bodysuit sitting in seiza position with Kisuke, Tessai and Yoruichi next to me, across the table from Prince Shihoin who looked utterly livid. Thankfully he was not angry with me, but rather at his Guard Commander, now demoted, who had just left after giving his report. The assassin had apparently managed to silently take out one patrolling guard who had gotten uncharacteristically sloppy for some reason. He had left the sight of his fellow patrollers for four seconds, but it might as well have been in eternity to someone sufficiently skilled in flash step. The assassin had taken the place of the guard and patiently waited through the night as the patrol rounds were made. He apparently even knew some of the hand signals and counter-signs used. He then managed to finally infiltrate with a guard rotation, and proceeded to try and kill me with a poison tipped blow dart.

That idea felt very weird as it rumbled through my brain, and it bubbled up emotions that I would rather not deal with now. The only question was…

"Why Prince Shihoin?"

Nobuo Shihoin raised an eyebrow at me, his stare evaluating before he finally looked at Yoruichi. They spoke without words and finally the Prince sighed. "I believe you were not targeted specifically, there is no way our enemy knows of you yet, Mel-chan. You were an opportunistic target that the assassin saw. To him you were merely another guest of the Shihoin Clan, after killing you he would have moved onto Tessai and Kisuke."

"Your deaths," Yoruichi said softly with a small hint of trembling emotion, "right within our walls would serve to severely discredit the Clan's standing."

I frowned in thought and couldn't help but draw a parallel to the reasons behind my own death. "So there is someone out there trying to bring down the Clan?"

"Oh, destroying us is probably deep within their dark little hearts, but they have a somewhat more realistic though ambitious goal in mind," Prince Shihoin explained. "They are called the Montoku Clan and have aspirations on rising to stand among the four great Clans, by wresting control of the Special Forces from our family. The only way they could do that is by seeding enough doubt in the minds of the Central 46 as to the ability and competency of the next head of the Shihoin family. As at the end of the day, _they _are the ones who have the final say as to who ascends to the position of Commander Special Forces, due its independent nature from the 13 Divisions."

I glanced at Yoruichi. "Or they could discredit the family and then simply…" I winced not wanting to finish the thought.

"That they could eventually come after me in earnest has occurred to us, Mel-chan," Yoruichi's eyes narrowed. "As my own parents are no longer with us and I have no brothers or sisters, with my death there would be no one of noble blood who has the skill and ability to take over the position of Commander."

I nodded in understanding, "Are you planning on retiring soon, Prince Shihoin?"

"I've commanded for over seven hundred years," the Prince sighed, "unlike in other parts of the military, the demands of the Special Forces are extreme, both physically and mentally. I'd give it another fifty or so years before I hand over the reins, if I'm not killed before then. New blood and especially new minds are needed." He looked at the four of us pointedly. What?

"Uh…Prince Shihoin?"

"Yes, I include you as well, Mel-chan."

"But…why? Not that I don't feel honored…"

The Prince chuckled. "I have my reasons most of which I'll keep to myself, but the only one I'll share is that I've been watching you as you train with my daughter and her friends. Your power is significant as you ably demonstrated this morning."

"If it had been a straight fight at my skill level…"

"But it wasn't a straight and fair fight," the Prince interrupted, thumping his hand on the desk, "the Special Forces are not about honor, fairness or chivalry, we leave that to the Thirteen Divisions. In the Special Forces we fight from the shadows, with overwhelming speed, power and stealth to surprise our enemies and kill them before they even know they are being attacked. Your defense of the caravan was a perfect example of your mindset in a fight, and that is why I'm offering you a place with Yoruichi, Tessai and Kisuke to eventually take a position suited to you within the Special Forces."

I was officially speechless.

In front of me stretched the most beautiful and unearthly vision I had ever seen in my life. A lush fertile valley was nestled between tall snow capped mountains that stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was illuminated by a twinkling night sky above that I knew for sure could never have been on Earth; an entire eerie blue galaxy was easily visible, in addition to _four_ moons that hung in the sky. I stood in the air easily two hundred meters above the valley floor. It was very calm, not clouds in the sky or any rustle of wind. A twinkling of silver light caught my eye from near the edge of the valley. My curiosity aroused I started to run through the air at a languid pace. There seemed to be no reason to rush. Soon the sound of falling water reached my ears and I landed on the ground at the edge of glittering pool, surrounded with lush green trees sporting all a manner of colorful fruit. The small waterfall was eerily familiar as my favorite swimming spot at my Uncle's farm. The whole place was a vision of natural wonder…an Eden.

But I was not alone.

Standing knee deep in the pool was a tall nude woman. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Next to her I felt like a plain Jane from next door. Perfectly proportioned full breasts with rosy nipples set in them and fair skin that was bronzed from sunlight with not a single freckle or flaw. Legs that would be the envy of any Hollywood starlet or model and like me she had overly long black hair, but unlike mine, gleamed with an ethereal light. She was also well toned and I felt that she could also be given a permanent spot on the cover of Fitness Magazine. Her hands daintily played with the water pool she stood in and near glowing emerald eyes surveyed me curiously from a sharpish angular face.

"Welcome to your soul, Melanie," the familiar lilting voice of my Soul Slayer spoke from the vision of beauty. Her full lips quirked in a smirk.

I blinked in astonishment for a moment at the twin revelation that _she_ was my sword and that I had such a picturesque soul. Another realization came to me as I finally placed what my sword's accent was.

"It's beautiful…and…so are you." She merely nodded graciously. "Uh, not that I'm not glad to be here, but wasn't I just in Prince Shihoin's office?"

"You are still there," my sword replied, her hands gesturing that it didn't matter. It was amazing that such a common action could be so _sensual_ when performed by this vision. "Time can have no meaning here in your Inner World if we wish it."

"So why…"

"This is an important decision you are making," she started walking, almost gliding out of the pool, again in a very sensual fashion, her hips swaying, until she stood a mere foot away from me. "Are you sure that being an assassin is what you want? Can you kill without hesitating, without caring about whether it's the right thing to do? Can you be no more than a blade in the hand of the Central 46?"

"Assassination is not _all_ they do, the Executive Militia of the Special Forces does that, there are four other divisions as well with other purposes," I argued back.

My Soul Slayer tilted her head, conceding the point. "Just checking. I should tell you now that I will not cut anyone who does not truly deserve it. One of my qualities is that I am a spirit of protection. If Central 46 was to order someone killed for an unjust reason…"

"If I knew it was unjust, then I wouldn't do it anyway,"

"Ah, but you know the saying, the truth…"

"…has three sides, yours, theirs and the actual truth." I nodded in understanding. "Now that I'm thinking about the Prince's offer…perhaps the Patrol Corps should fit me rather well. It struck me as the most appealing of the five divisions ever since Yoruichi explained them."

"A covert force that investigates all potential uprisings, as well as tracking down and apprehending fugitives of Soul Society, whilst externally patrolling the mortal realm to combat Hollows for long duration expeditions," my Soul Slayer recited, before nodding. "It's almost like being a policewoman with more teeth."

"Exactly."

"I doubt it's where you'll find your calling."

"What? Why?"

"I have a feeling," she gave me an enigmatic grin.

I rolled my eyes and changed subjects, "Can I come here whenever I want to?"

"Certainly," the Soul Slayer nodded. "Whether I appear to you is another matter entirely. I like exploring, and there's an entire universe within you…" she pointed to the stars overhead.

"I suppose us talking will help me learn your name and gain _Initial Release_ too?"

"Every little bit helps, I like solitude just as you do, but balance is important in all things and I will seek out contact with you in this fashion occasionally. In the meantime, I also suggest you return to living in nature as much as possible…this will also help you in gaining my name."

I nodded. "My Flash Step is reaching speeds where that won't be such a problem. I can commute to the Manor each day."

"Good," she looked up into the sky, "now return to the outer world, by inverting your focus."

I had barely thought of doing that and after a mere blink of the eyes I was now back in Prince Shihoin's office. The change in setting was rather jarring and I had to shake my head and close my eyes to regain equilibrium.

"You all right, Mel-chan?" Yoruichi inquired with a hint of concern.

"Yeah, fine." I felt the weight of the Shikomizue on my back acutely. Everyone was walking around armed in the compound with the recent infiltration. I looked at the Prince, before bowing deeply. "I accept the offer, Prince Shihoin."

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It was a week before I could return to my home in the forest. As it turned out, paperwork was a bane of the afterlife as well. The Prince had near artfully plotted my near future within the Special Forces. Ordinarily, I would've first gone to Seritei and the Spiritual Arts Academy, where depending on my skill level I would spend a maximum of six years, before being recruited by the Special Forces. The Shadow War with the Montoku Clan changed that, and there were still the Prince's enigmatic reasons beyond merely liking my fighting style. I think he also figured that another friendly blade beside Yoruichi would not go amiss.

So instead, I would continue to be tutored personally with Yoruichi and my friends within the relative safety of the Shihoin Clan Manor grounds. I would commute each day back and forth, also making sure to keep the forest clear of bandits so trade could flow through it. I was sure that the Prince had patrols already sweeping through unseen, and that he wasn't relying just on my neophyte skills to secure his southern border, but no army could be everywhere at once. This would continue until the Shadow War concluded. The War had a distinct political aspect which would be fought with words as much as it would be with blades in the shadows, as such there was no telling how long it would take. It could have been a year or even decades before it reached a conclusion.

I would then join the Academy merely to formalize and complete my training on the books.

That was the plan at least. I had other aspirations of course, beyond the scope of Special Forces, and which I would work on in whatever spare time I had. Given that I had conceivably more than two millennia of afterlife ahead of me…well, I had to do something other than just purifying Hollows or fighting other souls who committed crimes. I wanted to see Soul Society become as close to the utopia that was envisaged in the Bible, perhaps even see if there was some way to do the same for Earth.

How to achieve this was another question that I didn't yet have the answer to, but there was one part of the answer that I did have. Soul Society could not stay stuck in its current technology level. Yes, a lot of the technology conveniences could be achieved with equivalent magic, but not every soul was a surplus _generator_ of spiritual energy.

My first goal to achieve this was to find the necessary raw materials I would need for my first project and for this I headed to the largest blacksmith and forge in Shihoin Town. It surprised me as there was no chimney belching smoke coming out of its roof. I learned why when I entered as the heat source for the forge was a permanently enchanted magical fire that didn't emit any smoke at all. The blacksmith himself looked oddly at me as I declined his immediate help and walked amongst the various raw ores he had piled, briefly tapping my Shikomizue against each pile.

I had intended to use my Rapier to look for the specific ore I needed, but my Soul Slayer had stated that it wasn't necessary and one of her passive abilities was to know everything about any object she touched. Initially I couldn't find the ore, but when I spotted the largest pile in the back corner I wanted to slap myself upside the head for being stupid.

"That's my garbage pile, when I sort out the various ores that come from the mines," the barrel-chested blacksmith raised a bushy eyebrow.

"I know," I tapped against it and smiled. "This has a large concentration of lodestone."

"Yeah so?" the blacksmith shrugged. "Lodestone's good for nothing but making a compass and finding new iron deposits."

"Ordinarily yes," I agreed. "So how about I take all this 'garbage' off your hands then?"

"Are you serious?"

I nodded, "This is also for you." I handed over a letter from the Prince. I didn't know what it said, just that it would smooth the way to allow me obtain the materials I needed. I had initially asked the Prince for a small loan of money to purchase what I needed. Of course, the Prince wanted to know first of all what I wanted to do with it, and so I had to explain. It involved giving what amounted to an impromptu science lecture to the man on electricity and where it came from. It baffled and amazed the Prince but he could tell I wasn't lying or spinning a tall tale.

The blacksmith looked up from the letter to me and bowed. "I apologize, Mistress. You should have shown this to me first. What do you need?"

I smiled and walked over to a nearby table, and spread out a scroll whereupon I had with some effort managed to use an ink and brush to sketch out components. "These pieces are made of steel, and I also need pure copper but made into a long thin strand so that I can use it much like one would use thread."

The blacksmith looked down at the drawings in confusion. "I'm not familiar with these measurements."

"That's why I'll need to be here with you as you make these. I'll teach them to you; it's rather quite intuitive after a while."

"Hmmm," the smith mused, "I have other projects, but as you come with the Prince's blessing I'll set aside two hours a day for this, in the late afternoon?"

"Very well, I'll be here." I rolled up the plans. "Thank you for your time, Master Hu."

With that arranged I could finally return home, and my journey was uneventful.

But it seemed I had a visitor.

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I snapped into existence behind a tree, my Shikomizue in hand and ready, with a twist of will my white bodysuit dispelled. I now focused on the spiritual presence I had sensed with more detail. It was definitely within my unfinished house, and it had a very low radiance. Perhaps he or she was asleep. I peeked out from behind the tree and not seeing my visitor, I flash stepped upward and stood on air a few centimeters above the level of my unfinished roof.

Looking down I spied a sleeping female form. She was quite short with brown hair done up in a messy bun and wearing a torn ruined dress. It was of a style that made me think she had been at a costume party when she had died. It was made for a corset and had a wide flare with a length that trailed all the way down to her feet. There was no corset in sight though and the dull dirty dress had been pearl white once upon a time. I next noticed that she had been helping herself to some of my baskets of nuts and fruit. The firepit was also smoldering with hot ash.

I flash stepped back to the ground, out of sight, and tried to make sense of what I was feeling. A part of me wanted to be angry, but that was rapidly squashed with the fact that I hadn't exactly put no trespassing signs about, and what right did I really have to do that. She had probably appeared in the afterlife as I had, then stumbled about the forest in that awkward dress, then suddenly found herself hungry. She searched for food and stumbled upon my empty abode, with food inside, as if in answer to any prayers she had said.

I made my decision, and headed towards the river. It wouldn't do to be bad hostess after all and not welcome a guest with a proper meal.

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_A/N: It's should be fairly evident what she's going to try and build. It'll be ugly and klunky, but it'll work._


End file.
